Please see the full solicitation for complete information about the funding opportunity. Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO).

Program Summary听

As intellectual hubs for environmental health research, the EHS CC is expected to be the thought leaders for the field and advance the goals of the NIEHS Strategic Plan (). The Core Centers provide critical research infrastructure, shared facilities, services and/or resources, to groups of investigators conducting environmental health sciences research.听 An EHS CC enables researchers to conduct their independently-funded individual and/or collaborative research projects more efficiently and/or more effectively. The broad overall goal of an EHS CC is to identify and capitalize on emerging issues that advance improving the understanding of the relationships among environmental exposures, human听biology, and disease.听 The EHS CC supports community engagement and translational research as key approaches to improving public health.

The overall goals for the EHS CC Program are to enhance the capabilities of existing programs in environmental health sciences, assist with building programmatic and scientific capacity, lead in the development of novel research directions, recruit and groom future leaders in the field, and pioneer efforts in community engagement. The EHS CC grant provides facilities and resources to accelerate research along the spectrum from basic mechanistic and toxicological science to population and public health and dissemination. It should create a structure and flexibility that allow center members with different expertise to come together to answer complex and/or emerging questions and capitalize on the latest scientific trends leading to improved strategies towards preventing environmentally-induced disorders. While the EHS CC grant provides support for core resources and facilities, it does not provide direct funding for research projects, although limited funds are provided for pilot projects.

NIEHS considers community engagement and multi-directional communication as essential activities to advance the goals and relevance of an EHS CC. Therefore, the structure of the Center should facilitate multi-directional interaction with communities and EHS CC members through the required Community Engagement Core. 听In addition, EHS Cores are expected to attract established and promising investigators into environmental health research and provide opportunities for career enhancement.

To qualify for an EHS CC, the applicant institution must have a base of ongoing, independently supported, peer-reviewed research projects clearly dedicated to the study of environmental health sciences or environmental medicine, a substantial portion of which should be supported by NIEHS.听 The research base must exist prior to the submission of an application and will be considered by program staff to determine eligibility.

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST January 9, 2019

Sponsor Letter of Intent Deadline (not required): March 17, 2019

Sponsor Application Deadline: 5:00pm MST April 17, 2019

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

  • Project Summary (2-3 pages): Please include the following: statement of relevance of the Center鈥檚 research to public health, description of the institutional commitment for the proposed EHS CC at the applicant institution, specific center aims, and research strategy (including theme, goals and directions, how the center will pomot interdisciplinary studies and collaborations, and how the center will build research capacity).
  • PI CV / Biosketch
  • Project Team & Grant Support (up to 2 pages): Please list center members, including highest educational degree, institutional title, departmental affiliation, and federal/nonfederal grant support. Please indicate which members are EHS CC key personnel.
  • Budget Overview (up to 1 page): A basic budget outlining project costs is sufficient; detailed OCG budgets are not required.

To access the online application, visit:

Eligibility

To be eligible for an EHS CC award, the applicant institution must demonstrate that they have a minimum of three active NIEHS-supported research awards from three distinct PDs/PIs who are members of the proposed Center. At the time of submission of an application, the qualifying awards must have at least 1 full active year remaining.

Acceptable support includes R00, R01, R03, R21, R33, R37, R43, R44, P01, P42, P50, U01, U19, U24, U2C, and or Research Career Development Awards (K-grants). Each multi-component (e.g. P01, P50, or U19) award will count as one qualifying research project regardless of the location of the parent grant.

T-awards, U45, and Conference awards (R13, U13) do not count towards this requirement.听 Furthermore, grants and cooperative agreements in extension periods, either with or without additional funds, as well as supplements of any kind, do not count toward this requirement.

Limited Submission Guidelines

Only one application is allowed per institution.

Award Information

Number of Awards: 3-4

Award Amount: Application budgets are limited to $0.7M, $1.0M, or $1.3M direct costs per year as determined by direct costs of NIH research grants that are relevant to the environmental health sciences and for which an EHS CC member is designated as the PI. See the budget instructions for the Administrative Core to determine the applicable direct cost limit for the application.

Award Duration: Up to 5 years.