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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

The objective of the Program is to make available to institutions high-end research instruments that can only be justified on a shared-use basis and that are needed for NIH-supported projects in basic, translational, and clinical biomedical or biobehavioral research. The HEI program provides funds to purchase or upgrade a single item of expensive, leading-edge, specialized, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system. An integrated instrumentation system is one in which the components, when used in conjunction with one another, perform a function that no single component can provide. The components must be dedicated to the system and not used independently.

Types of supported instruments include, but are not limited to: X-ray diffractometers, mass spectrometers, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers, DNA and protein sequencers, biosensors, electron and light microscopes, flow cytometers, high throughput robotic screening systems, and biomedical imagers. Applications for standalone computer systems (supercomputers, computer clusters and data storage systems) will only be considered if the system is solely dedicated to biomedical research.

The HEI Program will not support requests for:

• An instrument with a base cost of less than $600,001.
• Multiple instruments bundled together.
• Purely instructional equipment other than under the conditions of SUI – see Section III.3.
• Instruments that are not commercially available and do not have a manufacturer warranty.
• Institutional administrative management systems or clinical management systems.
• Instruments to be used for clinical (billable) care, other than under the conditions of SUI – see Section III.3.
• Software, unless it is integrated in the operation of the instrument and/or necessary for the generation of high-quality output experimental data from the instrument.
• Additional stand-alone workstations for data processing, licenses, and duplicate software items.
• General purpose equipment (such as standard machine shop equipment), instruments to furnish a research facility (such as autoclaves, hoods, equipment to upgrade animal facilities), and equipment for routine sustaining infrastructure (such as standard computer networks or data storage systems).
• Disposable devices, office furniture, and supplies.
• Alteration or renovation of space to house the instruments.

To promote cost effectiveness, encourage optimal sharing among individual investigators, and foster a collaborative multidisciplinary environment, the instrument should be integrated in a core facility, whenever possible.

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST March 20, 2023

Sponsor Application Deadline: 5:00pm MST June 1, 2023

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

• Project Summary (3 pages maximum): Please include the following: relevance to public health, description of requested instrument, justification of need, technical expertise of individuals who will set up and run the instrument, research projects that will be benefitted by the instrument, organizational/management plan, and financial plan for long-term operation and maintenance of the instrument.
• PI Curriculum Vitae / Biosketch
• Budget Overview (1 page maximum): A basic budget outlining project costs is sufficient; detailed OCG budgets are not required.

To access the online application, visit:

Eligibility

At least three Major Users who have substantial need for the instrument must be identified. Each of these Major Users must be a PD/PI on a distinct active NIH research award (i.e., a grant or a cooperative agreement) in an area of basic, translational, or clinical research. The requirement is one award per investigator, with more awards per investigator allowed. An award given to multi-PDs/PIs is counted only once towards the fulfillment of this requirement. NIH training or fellowship grants (i.e., T and F mechanisms), other non-research and SBIR/STTR grants, Other Transaction (OT) awards and contracts cannot be counted towards the fulfillment of this requirement. Once the eligibility requirement of at least three Major Users with distinct NIH-funded research projects has been met, additional users with active research awards from NIH or other sources may be added as Major or Minor Users. Investigators with funding from sources such as other Federal agencies (e.g., NSF, DoE, DoD), private foundations, or academic institutions, can be added as Major Users, provided they are engaged in basic, translational, or clinical research and can demonstrate a substantial need for the instrument. Major Users can be researchers from the same department or several departments, divisions or schools at the applicant institution, or from nearby or regional institutions. In certain circumstances, as technology dictates, Major Users may come from distant institutions, but they must demonstrate the need for the instruments and describe plans for regular access to the instrument.

Limited Submission Guidelines

Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct. There is no restriction on the number of applications an institution can submit to the Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) and the HEI Programs each year, provided the applications request different types of equipment. An internal competition is being administered to ensure there is no duplicative equipment requests.

Award Information

Award Amount: Minimum award is $600,001 of direct costs. Maximum award is $2,000,000 of direct costs.

Award Duration: 1 year

Review Criteria

Please reference the NIH application for full details.