Thursday, July 15, 2021

India Collaborative Vision Research Program (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

 The deadlines are  November 8, 2021, November 8, 2022, November 8, 2023.

 

Summary:

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages Multiple Principal Investigator (Multi-PD/PI) applications from United States (U.S.)-based institutions with an Indian institution partner to establish bilateral collaborations that will advance science and technology important to understanding, preventing, and treating blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, and their complications. 

Applications are encouraged from organizations/institutions that propose to conduct research on the basic biology and/or genetics of ophthalmic diseases through collaborations with Indian investigators on the following: diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, including rare and genetic diseases such as congenital cataracts, as well as other eye conditions such as ocular inflammation/uveitis, refractive error, low vision, and corneal injury. Basic, translational, or epidemiological research may be proposed. Clinical trials will not be supported under this FOA.

 

A. Background

Scientific collaborations between the U.S. and India have been successfully conducted for several years under a variety of bilateral agreements.  Recognizing that continuing collaborative research focused on eye diseases and visual disorders would be of mutual benefit to the U.S. and India, the National Eye Institute (NEI), the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and a Joint Working Group (JWG) developed a strategic plan for collaborations and to facilitate the expedited review and clearance of proposed bilateral projects.  Both the NEI and the DBT have pledged funds to support joint activities pursued under this bilateral program.

Several eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, AMD, and glaucoma are complex and influenced by multiple genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors including family, nutrition, and exposure to toxins.  During the past decade, progress has been made identifying these factors. In AMD, for example, environmental factors including smoking and sunlight have been shown to increase risk, and a diet rich in fatty acids has been shown to decrease risk. There are likely other unknown factors that are involved in precipitating AMD and other ocular diseases.  Large scale genomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and informatic methods using emergent or current technologies to study unique populations are encouraged to identify new factors that can affect susceptibility to these diseases and/or ocular infections, as well as biomarkers that will provide the basis for accurate diagnostic tests and predict treatment outcome.

There are also many eye conditions and complications such as inflammation that affect some intracommunity populations to a much greater extent, providing a valuable resource for learning more about visual restoration as well as the pathogenesis and physiology of a disorder. For instance, the impact of environmental pollutants, including those generated by cooking stoves, on the development of cataracts, as well as the susceptibility of toxins to cause infections, such as ocular TB and trachoma, are not well understood.  Research on these populations that will further our understanding of neural plasticity including neurogenesis, cognition, and processing after the treatment of visual disorders and injury are also of interest to NEI and the DBT. 

Research Objectives

This FOA is intended to support collaborations between the U.S. and India that focus on the basic biology, epigenetic, and/or genetics of ophthalmic diseases and visual disorders.

Applications may include, but are not limited to collaborations addressing the following areas:

  • Family based genome wide association studies (GWAS) on available cohorts of consanguineous families from India to identify genetic variants that predispose to both Mendelian and complex forms of eye disease;
  • Validation of novel GWAS findings in appropriate animal models;
  • Identification of biomarkers that predict and/or assess risk and response to interventions;
  • Studies of environmental factors that predict risk of eye diseases such as imprinting and other epigenetic effects;
  • Studies to determine the underlying biology of ocular diseases including, AMD, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, myopia and presbyopia;
  • Studies focusing on the basic science of neuroplasticity of vision including perceptual learning and adaptation after eye injury;
  • Studies of the mechanisms through which environmental pollutants/toxins contribute to ocular diseases and their complications including infection and inflammation;
  • Identification of factors that influence the success of corneal transplantation and recovery after surgery. 

 

Collaborations

The FOA requires that the collaboration between the U.S. and Indian research teams be submitted as a Multiple Principal Investigator (Multi-PD/PI) application with both of the lead scientists from each country as the PD/PI.  Applications may be derived from existing collaborations with an established history of interaction, or from new partnerships developed in response to this FOA. The collaboration must be based on interactive relationships that maximize the expertise of the individual U.S. and Indian research teams.

Through this FOA, U.S. and Indian collaborating investigators should work together to develop and submit an application to National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the India Ministry of Science and Technology's Department of Biotechnology (DBT). The Indian application should follow DBT guidance using the 'Proposal Submission form for R&D Projects' format available at the DBT eProMIS portal: http://www.dbtepromis.nic.in/sample_forms.htm. In addition to a detailed research plan, the application must include a leadership plan that describes the roles, responsibilities, and working relationship of the PD/PIs, as well as information about performance sites, the proposed work to be accomplished at each site, and a complete budget for the collaboration. Only those applications that are determined to be meritorious will be considered for joint funding and will be supported by the DBT and NIH under this program.  The DBT

will provide funds for the Indian component and NIH will fund the US component.

The NIH Research Project Grant will directly support salaries of U.S. personnel and research activities within the U.S.  It is anticipated that the Indian award will fund the Indian component and will support research activities within India, salaries of Indian research personnel, and other research cost as per DBT norms.  All research in India will be conducted in accordance with both U.S. and Government of India regulations for the protection of human subjects. 

Note:  Organizations must register and apply with their eRA Commons.  All U.S. and Indian applicants must have an active DUNS number and SAM registration in order to complete the eRA Commons registration.

Applications Not Responsive to this FOA

The following applications will be considered non-responsive and will not be reviewed for this FOA:

  • Applications that include clinical trials
  • Applications that include research topics that do not fall within the NEI mission and/or the NIH referral guidelines such as the diagnosis and treatment of ocular cancers 

Applicants are encouraged to confer with an appropriate NEI Scientific/Research Contactto discuss the relevance of the research topic to the NEI mission.

More information can be found at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-21-249.html



 



 

 

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