NIH – Advancing Genomic Medicine Research (R01 Clinical Trial Optional, also R21)

Purpose:

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications that stimulate innovation and advance understanding of when, where, and how best to implement the use of genomic information and technologies in clinical care. Proposed projects should be broadly applicable to genomic medicine as a field, and yield findings of significance beyond a single disease, gene, or setting. Projects are strongly encouraged to include ancestrally diverse and underrepresented participants and populations.

Background:

NHGRI is currently developing its 2020 strategic plan which continues to emphasize studies of the implementation of genomics in clinical practice, in ways that provide generalizable methods and knowledge, and in ways that include diverse populations and diverse settings. As part of NHGRI’s strategic planning activities, the Genomics in Medicine & Health Strategic Planning Workshop was held in September 2019 to explore how to integrate genomics into routine medical practice to prevent disease and improve the health of a diverse community (https://www.genome.gov/event-calendar/strategic-planning-workshop-genomics-in-medicine-and-health). Recommendations from the workshop and other strategic planning town halls and events include the need to:

1. Create systems to integrate genomics into everyday clinical and public health practice.

2. Improve processes for routine, high-value clinical genomic testing.

3. Build knowledge bases for predictive genomic medicine in diverse populations.

4. Develop and evaluate genomic prevention and therapeutic strategies in diverse populations.

5. Ensure that genomic health information has maximum utility for all members of the public.

6. Train healthcare providers to integrate genomics into the clinical workflow.

NHGRI has largely funded genomic medicine research through multi-disciplinary consortia, which provide rich opportunities for collaboration or ancillary projects and have produced valuable data, resources, and tools for independent genomic medicine research (For more information about these programs, see https://www.genome.gov/about-nhgri/Division-of-Genomic-Medicine#two). As the field grows, however, opportunities for focused research projects outside large-scale consortium approaches are also growing. NHGRI is working to expand our genomic medicine portfolio to include these types of projects. These include projects carried out in clinical settings which propose nimble, flexible approaches to problems in application or implementation of genomic medicine.

This FOA builds upon the Investigator-Initiated Genomic Medicine Research R01 and R21 PARs, requires active participation in at least one annual meeting in which substantial information and data sharing are expected among grantees, allowing for independent but synergistic efforts among grantees and promoting rapid sharing of successful approaches and resulting data.

Related applications in genomic medicine might also be received through the NIH Parent R01 and R21 announcements, as well as the Dissemination and Implementation PARs (PAR-19-274 and PAR-19-275), the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) of Genomics Research PARs (PA-17-444 and PA-17-446), the Novel Approaches for Relating Genetic Variation to Function and Disease PARs (PA-18-868 and PA-18-867), Novel Genomic Technology Development PARs (PAR-18-777 and PAR-18-778), and Investigator-Initiated Research in Computational Genomics and Data Science PARs (PA-18-844 and PAR-18-843). Although responsive applications to this FOA might incorporate elements of these related FOAs (e.g., ELSI considerations in the conduct of clinical research) the primary focus should be transformative research and knowledge-building in the field of genomic medicine.

Key Dates:

Filed Under: Funding Opportunities