Published on June 13, 2012 at 8:44 AM
For the pilot phase of the program, in fiscal year 2013, NCATS will provide up to $20 million to fund two- to three-year staged, cooperative agreement research grants. If specific milestones are met, funded researchers will conduct pre-clinical validation and clinical feasibility studies in the first stage, and proof-of-concept clinical trials in the second stage, to test whether one of the compounds may be effective against a previously unexplored disease target. The pilot phase also is intended to test the utility of the newly created template agreements by reducing the negotiation time that otherwise could delay the research.
Researchers who are interested in NCATS' Therapeutics Discovery funding must submit a pre-application in response to the NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-12-203 by Aug. 14, 2012. Applicants must include details about how they would explore specific hypotheses related to one of the compounds that might be useful in a specific disease area. The pre-applications will undergo review by external experts, and while no funding will be provided at this stage, successful applicants will be notified to submit a full application for fiscal year 2013 funding.
Source: NIH/National Center for Research Resources