Purpose:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released a Research Opportunity Announcement (ROA) encouraging proposals for Data Generation Projects as part of the NIH Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) program. This ROA is specifically soliciting projects in data generation to produce flagship datasets that are ethically-based, associated tools and standards, and workforce development and training in order to address existing grand challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that can be solved using artificial intelligence and machine-learning (AI/ML) analysis.
Backround:
Award Information: NIH plans to commit approximately $96 million to these projects over a four-year period, which would fund five to eight awards. Award levels may increase or decrease depending on programmatic needs, funding availability, and recipient performance.
Eligibility: Any public or private institution of higher education or non-profit research institution is eligible to apply. Each Data Generation Project proposal must include each of the modules listed below. Each proposed Module will be reviewed individually and may be separately awarded to work with other Modules proposed by other Data Generation Project proposals to form the overall NIH Bridge2AI Consortium.
Teaming Module: Should establish interdisciplinary collaboration through task integration, relationship building and social integration, team formation, and executing key elements of the Project’s Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP);
Ethical and Trustworthy AI/ML Module: Should identify, assess, and help address ethical and trustworthy AI issues encountered throughout the Project;
Standards Module: Should unify data attributes across multiple data sources and data types required to address the Project’s chosen grand challenge;
Tool Development and Optimization Module: Should build and provide tools for the biomedical and behavioral research community to enable annotation and structuring of data, frameworks for extracting knowledge, and lowering of barriers for researchers to expand their work to include AI/ML;
Data Acquisition Module: Should generate new, high-quality AI/ML-ready datasets that can address the Project’s chosen grand challenge and advance the field of AI/ML analysis; and
Skills and Workforce Development Module: Should include a focus on both skills development (i.e. development of integrated and coordinated curricula for AI/ML in biomedical research) and workforce development (i.e. support career development, mentoring, recruitment, and retention of prospective participants).
The Data Generation Projects are the first funding opportunity to be published through the new Bridge2AI initiative. Lewis-Burke will continue to monitor upcoming opportunities from Bridge2AI, including the forecasted Bridge2AI Integration, Dissemination, and Evaluation (BRIDGE) Center, which will be released in the coming weeks and months.
Key Dates:
NIH strongly encourages applicants to participate in upcoming Grand Challenge Team Building Activities, including a Program Town Hall, Module Microlabs, and a Team Building Expo, in order to facilitate connections between potential applicants and strengthen submitted proposals. These activities will take place between June 9, 2021 and June 23, 2021, and full details and registration information will be available on the NIH Bridge2AI website. A letter of intent for this opportunity is required and is due by 11:59 PM ET on July 20, 2021. The full proposal for the Data Generation Project is due on August 20, 2021.
URL for more information:
https://commonfund.nih.gov/sites/default/files/OT2-Data-Generation-Projects-B2AI-051321-508.pdf.
Filed Under: Funding Opportunities