This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites qualified institutions to seek funds to modernize operations of existing research facilities through the purchase and installation of advanced equipment that enable and enhance a broad range of research-supporting activities. Any equipment supported by this FOA must be substantially used in a laboratory research core facility, animal facility, or similar shared-use research spaces to ensure broad benefits for the institutional research community. Moreover, any request must be justified by research-related demands for the modernization of research-supporting functions or for the advancement of facility operations. This FOA does not support the purchase of scientific instruments or their components, nor components of building-level infrastructure equipment that indirectly support research activities (such as HVACs or power generators).
NIH recognizes that modern physical infrastructure that supports the scientific enterprise is indispensable for the advancement of biomedical research. Laboratory spaces or animal facilities: i) employ a wide range of advanced technical solutions to create well-controlled environments, ii) provide research spaces with equipment to facilitate and optimize research-supporting activities, and iii) provide tools that assist in facility operations and monitoring.
The objective of this FOA is to support the acquisition of modern, technologically advanced equipment needed to improve or streamline operating processes and procedures in core laboratories, animal research facilities, or other shared-use research support space. Providing access to such equipment can also expand the capacity of essential support services for evolving and emerging research programs. This FOA does not support the acquisition of scientific research instruments that acquire experimental data or any other instrument directly involved in experimental processes that lead to data collection. Some examples of such excluded instruments include, but are not limited to, spectrometers, microscopes, biomedical imagers, cell analyzers, sequencers, PCR machines, chromatography equipment, and metabolic cages. Computer and data storage systems supporting scientific data collection, storage, and analysis are also not supported by this FOA. These instruments may be requested through ORIP’s shared instrumentation programs. The text below gives examples of equipment supported by this FOA.
Award Budget
Application budgets must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum award budget is $350,000, direct costs only. Applications with a budget less than $50,000 will not be considered. For requests of multiple pieces of the same equipment, the minimum budget for each piece is $15,000. Auxiliary items required for the main equipment piece to function may be less. Since the scope of different projects will vary, it is anticipated that the size of the awards will vary.
Interested applicants should upload the following documents in sequence in one PDF file (File name: Last name_NIH PAR-22-190_2021) no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:
1. Cover Page(1 page, pdf):
- Descriptive title of proposed activity
- PI name, departmental affiliations(s) and contact information
- Co-PI's names and departmental affiliation(s)
- Names of other key personnel
- Participating institution(s)
- Number and title of this funding opportunity
2. Project Description (no more than two pages, pdf) identifying the project scope that addresses the key aspects and elements of the sponsor's solicitation, principal investigators, collaborators, and partner organizations.
- Should describe i) the shared-used facility where the proposed equipment will be installed, ii) demonstrate novel capabilities or operational innovation that will be enabled by the equipment, iii) justify the request by research-related needs, iv) and describe long-term plans for the maintenance and usage of the equipment.
3. 2-page CV's of Investigators
Formatting Guidelines:
Font/size: Times New Roman (12 pt.)
Document margins: 1.0” (top, bottom, left and right)
Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)
Questions concerning the limited submissions process may be submitted to limitedsubs@psu.edu.