NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5) 2021 (Non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Related)

To:	Chairs and Administrators; Departments in the Biological and Social Sciences; Associate Deans for Research; College/School Research Administrators
From:	Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Education
Date:	June 10, 2020
Subject:	NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5) 2021 (Non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Related)

Deadline

Deadline for Internal Review:

July 27, 2020

Project Description

The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award provides an opportunity for exceptional junior scientists to accelerate their entry into an independent research career by forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period. Though most newly graduated doctoral-level researchers would benefit from post-doctoral training, a small number of outstanding junior investigators are capable of launching directly into an independent research career.  For those select junior investigators who already have established a record of scientific innovation and research productivity and who have demonstrated unusual scientific vision and maturity, typical post-doctoral training would unnecessarily delay their entry into independent research.

The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award is part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program funded through the NIH Common Fund, which supports cross-cutting programs that are expected to have exceptionally high impact. All Common Fund initiatives invite investigators to develop bold, innovative, and often risky approaches to address problems that may seem intractable or to seize new opportunities that offer the potential for rapid progress.

NIH has released 2 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5 mechanism) funding opportunities for FY 2021:

• Non-COVID-19-related research proposals RFA-RM-20-014.
• COVID-19-related research proposals RFA-RM-20-021.

 

Proposal Item	DP5	DP5 – COVID-19 Related
FOA number	RFA-RM-20-014	RFA-RM-20-021
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization	2	2
Due Date	September 4, 2020	September 4, 2020
Amount per Award	$250,000 direct costs per year, plus applicable F&A costs	$250,000 direct costs per year, plus applicable F&A costs
Duration of Award	5 years	5 years
Number of Awards	10 Awards	5 – 10 Awards
Research areas	Applications are welcome in all research areas broadly relevant to the mission of NIH. These areas include, but are not limited to, the behavioral, medical, natural, social, applied, and formal sciences.	Any relevant area of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 research is welcome, including behavioral/social science research, research on health disparities, novel therapeutics, and other related topics.
Effort Requirement	Minimum of 80% research effort in first 2 years	Minimum of 80% research effort in first 2 years

Eligibility

Applications with multiple PDs/PIs will not be accepted. Only single PD/PI applications are allowed. Only the PD/PI may be listed as a Senior/Key Person and provide a Biographical Sketch.

Time window for eligibility: Given the focus on early research independence, the receipt date of the terminal doctoral degree or end of post-graduate clinical training of the PD/PI must be between June 1, 2019 and September 30, 2021. The degree receipt date is that which appears on the official transcript for the degree. The end of post-graduate clinical training includes residency and fellowship periods. At the time of application, the PD/PI must not have served as a post-doctoral fellow following a previous (not the most recent) doctoral degree for more than twelve months.

At the time of award, either 1) the Early Independence investigator must have received a PhD, MD, DO, DC, DDS, DVM, OD, DPM, ScD, EngD, DrPH, DNSc, ND (Doctor of Naturopathy), PharmD, DSW, PsyD, or equivalent doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution (it is the responsibility of the sponsoring institution to determine if a foreign doctoral degree is equivalent), or 2) an authorized official of the degree-granting or training institution must certify that all degree requirements have been met and that the receipt date of the degree (as will appear on the transcript) will be before September 30, 2021; in addition, an authorized official of the host institution must certify that the PD/PI will be eligible to conduct independent research at the institution at the time of the project start date.

Level of effort: Individuals must commit at least 9.6 person-months each year (i.e., 80% effort of a 12-month appointment) to the Early Independence Award project in years 1-2 of the project period. In years 3-5, awardees may reduce effort towards the Early Independence Award project but must commit at least 9.6 person-months each year (i.e., 80% effort of a 12-month appointment) to independent research in general.

Research independence at time of application: Individuals are eligible only if they, at the time of application submission, do not have research independence. Lack of research independence is defined functionally rather than by position title. Eligible individuals must have all the following characteristics:

• The PD/PI’s current research agenda is set through concurrence with mentors.
• The PD/PI’s research is funded primarily through support to other investigators (mentored fellowships such as NIH F31 or F32 Fellowships or NSF Graduate Research Fellowships do not preclude eligibility).
• The PD/PI does not have any space assigned directly by the institution for the conduct of his/her research.
• The PD/PI, according to institutional policy, cannot apply for an NIH R01 grant without special waiver or exemption from the institution.

Though PDs/PIs must not be functionally independent at the time of application submission, they may become functionally independent prior to time of award and still retain eligibility for the award.

UW-Madison is allowed to submit 2 applications

Website

The following link contains additional information on the program and specific application instructions:
https://commonfund.nih.gov/earlyindependence

Internal Competition Application Instructions

Sponsor Deadlines

Applications are due to NIH by September 04, 2020.

Questions?

Contact grants@research.wisc.edu.