Complementary and Integrative Health - Training, Individual

NCCIH is the lead Federal agency for scientific research on the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative treatments and practices. NCCIH seeks to build knowledge across disciplines, focusing on the whole person, an

he National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) provides funding for research into complementary and integrative health approaches. Eligible entities (including, but not limited to: research and academic institutions, private companies) may submit research grant applications using the Grants.gov website. All applications undergo a rigorous, 2-stage, peer-review system, and funding decisions are made based on the review of applications that are most meritorious and responsive to the mission of NCCIH.

Universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, and other public or private nonprofit domestic institutions, including State and local units of government, and individuals are eligible to make application for grant support of research by a named principal investigator or a research career development candidate. Individual NRSA awardees must be nominated and sponsored by a public or nonprofit private institution having staff and facilities appropriate to the proposed research training program. All NRSA awardees must be citizens or have been admitted to the United States for permanent residence. To be eligible, predoctoral candidates must have completed the baccalaureate degree, and postdoctoral awardees must have a professional or scientific degree (e.g., M.D., Ph.D., D.D.S., D.O., N.D., D.C., D.V.M., Sc.D., D.Eng., or equivalent domestic or foreign degree). To be eligible for funding, a grant application must be approved for scientific merit and program relevance by a scientific review group and a national advisory council.

Any public or nonprofit private institution engaged in biomedical research.

Awards are usually made for a 12-month period with recommendation of up to 4 years of additional support. See the following for information on how assistance is awarded/released: The Notice of Award (NoA) is the legal document issued to notify the grantee that an award has been made and that funds may be requested from the designated HHS payment system or office. A NoA is issued for the initial budget period. If subsequent budget periods are also approved, the NoA will include a reference to those budgetary commitments. Funding for subsequent budget periods are generally provided in annual increments following the annual assessment of progress. This funding is also contingent on the availability of funds. The NoA includes all applicable terms of award either by reference or specific statements. It provides contact information for the assigned program officer and grants management specialist. The grantee accepts an NIH award and its associated terms and conditions by drawing or requesting funds from the Payment Management System, or upon the endorsement of a check from the US Treasury for foreign awardees. Method of awarding/releasing assistance: lump sum

The major elements in evaluating proposals include assessments of: (1) the scientific merit innovation and general significance of the proposed study and its objectives; (2) the technical adequacy of the experimental design and approach; (3) the competency of the proposed investigator or group to successfully pursue the project; (4) the adequacy of the available and proposed facilities and resources; (5) the necessity of the budget components requested in relation to the proposed project; (6) the relevance and importance to the announced program objectives and when applicable,and (7) the adequacy of assurances detailing the proposed means for safeguarding human or animal subjects as well as (8) adequacy of the proposed mentoring plan, the proposed training plan and qualification of the trainee

Award Procedure: All accepted applications are evaluated for scientific and technical merit as well as merit of the proposed metoring and training plan and the trainees qualificaiton by an appropriate scientific peer review panel and by a national advisory council or board. All applications receiving a priority score ranging from the best (10) to worst (90) compete for available funds based on scientific merit, program relevance, and program balance and are made annually. Initial award provides funds for the first budget period (usually 12 months) and Notice of Grant Award (Form PHS 1533) indicates support recommended for remainder of project period, allocation of Federal funds by budget categories, and special conditions, if any.

> 180 Days. Overall from 180 to 300 days. National Service Research Awards: 6-9 months

National Research Service Awards: individual awards may be made for 1, 2, or 3 years. No individual may receive NIH fellowship support at the postdoctoral level for more than 3 years.

An applicant institution (including the Authorized Organization Representative and the Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI)) may question the substantive or procedural aspects of the review of their application by submitting an appeal. An appeal is a written communication from the applicant that meets the following three criteria: 1) is received after issuance of the summary statement and up to 30 calendar days after the second level of peer review, 2) describes a flaw or perceived flaw in the review process for a particular application, 3) is based on one or more of four allowable issues (described below). The four allowable issues are: (1) evidence of bias on the part of one or more peer reviewers; (2) conflict of interest, as specified in regulation at 42 CFR 52h.5."Scientific Peer Review of Research Grant Applications and Research and Development Contract Projects", on the part of one or more peer reviewers; (3) lack of appropriate expertise within the scientific review group (which performed the peer review); and (4) factual error(s) made by one or more reviewers that could have substantially altered the outcome of review. A description of the NIH Peer Review Policy and Procedures is available at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-064.html.