Single, clear statement of grant's core objective: To enhance vision research by providing shared core resources and services to a group of independently funded NEI R01 investigators, fostering collaboration and increasing research productivity.
Explicit identification of target recipient type and size: Institutions (Higher Education, Nonprofits, For-Profit, Government, Other) with 8 or more active NEI-supported R01 grants.
MUST state if grant is 'SECTOR-SPECIFIC' or 'SECTOR-AGNOSTIC': SECTOR-SPECIFIC
Geographic scope and any location requirements: United States. Foreign institutions and components are not eligible.
Key filtering criteria for initial grant screening: Must be a US-based institution with at least 8 active NEI R01 grants. Must not involve clinical trials or direct human subjects research.
Grant frequency and program context: Recurring opportunity (reissue of PAR-20-051) with annual application windows. A P30 Center Core Grant, designed to support shared infrastructure for existing research.
Financial Structure
Budget Range:
Up to $2,000,000 direct costs over a five-year period for institutions having 8 to 19 eligible NEI R01 grants.
Up to $2,500,000 direct costs over a five-year period for institutions having 20 or more eligible NEI R01 grants.
Project Period: Maximum 5 years.
Cost Sharing: Not required.
Eligible Costs:
Administrative Core Director salary support (maximum 0.6 person months).
Secretarial and Administrative Staff salary support (maximum 15% of the total direct costs of a Core Grant award in any year).
Technical Support Personnel salary.
Equipment (if directly related to core operations; purchases over $25,000 require special justification and are generally discouraged, as the grant is not for high-cost equipment acquisition).
Consumable supplies directly related to Core operations (e.g., photographic supplies, electronic parts, machine shop stock, tissue culture media).
Equipment maintenance, computer time, and leasing of computer lines.
Ineligible Costs:
Patient care costs.
Animal care per diem charges (boarding).
Costs associated with seminars, conferences, workshops, etc.
High-cost equipment (should be funded through other sources).
Financial Reporting: Annual Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) and financial statements (Federal Financial Report portion for closeout). Reporting on first-tier subawards over threshold to Federal Subaward Reporting System (FSRS).
Eligibility Requirements
Organization Type & Status
Eligible: Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education, Private Institutions of Higher Education, Nonprofits with/without 501(c)(3) IRS Status, Small Businesses, For-Profit Organizations (other than Small Businesses), State Governments, County Governments, City or Township Governments, Special District Governments, Federally Recognized Indian/Native American Tribal Governments, Other Indian/Native American Tribal Governments, Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government, U.S. Territory or Possession, Independent School Districts, Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities, Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Faith-based or Community-based Organizations, Regional Organizations.
Ineligible: Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions), Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations. Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed.
Consortium Allowed: Yes, 'Any institution or consortium applying for a NEI Center Core Grant'.
Organizational Capacity & Funding Base
Minimum active NEI R01 grants: Must have 8 or more active NEI-supported R01 grants. (Grant applications in administrative extensions, administrative supplements, revisions, and sub-contracts are not eligible for this count).
Established research program: Must have an active, established program in basic, translational, epidemiological, or behavioral research in one or more NEI program areas.
Core Structure
Required Cores: Must propose a minimum of three Resource and/or Service Cores, in addition to a required Administrative Core.
Registration & Compliance
Required Registrations (prior to submission): System for Award Management (SAM) with active registration (annual renewal required), Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) – issued via SAM.gov, eRA Commons (organization registration with Signing Official and PD/PI accounts), Grants.gov. Foreign organizations requiring an NCAGE code must obtain it to register in SAM.
PD/PI Requirements: All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account.
Cost Sharing: Not required.
Project Scope Exclusions
Clinical Trials: Applications proposing clinical trials are not allowed.
Human Subjects: Studies directly involving human subjects are not allowed. However, secondary studies using de-identified human specimens, cell lines, or data are permitted, provided appropriate approvals are obtained through the individual research grants that support collection of human subject material.
Non-responsive Topics: Research not within the NEI mission; Centers solely focused on clinical methodology core(s) supporting outcomes, epidemiology, clinical trials, and health services research.
Application Process
Key Dates
Posted Date: May 01, 2023.
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): August 30, 2023.
Letter of Intent Due Date(s): Not Applicable.
Application Due Dates:
September 30, 2023 (New/Renewal/Resubmission/Revision)
September 30, 2024 (New/Renewal/Resubmission/Revision)
September 30, 2025 (New/Renewal/Resubmission/Revision)
All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
Expiration Date: October 01, 2025.
Earliest Start Dates (for September due dates): July of the following year (e.g., September 30, 2025 due has an earliest start date of July 2026).
Application Process
Submission Method: Electronically via NIH ASSIST system or an institutional system-to-system (S2S) solution to Grants.gov.
Tracking: Track application status in eRA Commons.
Early Submission: Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time for corrections.
Late Submissions: Not accepted unless due to documented system issues following NIH guidance.
Application Package: Must be accessed through ASSIST or an institutional S2S solution.
Required Components & Documentation
Multi-Component Application Structure:
Overall Component (Required)
Administrative Core (Required, maximum of 1)
Resource/Service Cores (Required, minimum of 3)
Page Limitations: Adhere to SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and Table of Page Limits. Specific limits: Overall (6 pages), Admin Core (6 pages), Core (6 pages).
Required Attachments (Overall Component):
Table of 'Grants Supporting the Research Community': Listing relevant grants, their duration, current year direct cost, and PD/PIs.
'Research Community Biographical Sketches': Biographical sketches for all investigators in the research community, organized alphabetically. Do not duplicate biosketches for Senior/Key personnel.
Letters of Support: Documentation confirming institutional commitment and contribution.
Data Management and Sharing Plan: Attached in the 'Other Plan(s)' attachment.
Table of 'Use of Resource Cores': To describe projected use by funded investigators (name, services, users, funded projects, projected usage).
Appendix: Only limited items allowed. For Overall: maps, floor plans, questionnaires, examples of sign-in sheets. For individual Cores: similar items specific to that Core. Publication lists, person lists, or biographical sketches are not acceptable appendix material.
Evaluation Criteria
Overall Impact
Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved.
Scored Review Criteria
Significance:
Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field?
Is the prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project rigorous?
How will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved if the aims are achieved?
How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field?
Specific for NOFO: Does the Center Core provide resources and/or services to meet the scientific needs of the research base?
Specific for NOFO: Will the Center Core be used by multiple investigators?
Specific for NOFO: What is the likelihood that the Center Core will increase efficiency, accelerate progress, and promote new research directions and scientific collaborations among the Senior Persons and other users?
Investigator(s):
Are the PD(s)/PI(s), collaborators, and other researchers well suited to the project?
Do Early Stage Investigators or those in the early stages of independent careers have appropriate experience and training?
Have established investigators demonstrated an ongoing record of accomplishments that have advanced their field(s)?
If collaborative or multi-PD/PI, do investigators have complementary and integrated expertise, and are their leadership approach, governance, and organizational structure appropriate?
Innovation:
Does the application challenge and seek to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms by utilizing novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions?
Are the concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense?
Is a refinement, improvement, or new application of theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions proposed?
Specific for NOFO: Does the Center Core use innovative ways to communicate or integrate activities among the Resource/Service Cores, or across basic and clinical research?
Specific for NOFO: Are there innovative methods for allocating resources or promoting new cross-departmental or multi-disciplinary collaborations?
Approach:
Are the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims?
Have investigators included plans to address weaknesses in the rigor of prior research?
Have investigators presented strategies to ensure a robust and unbiased approach?
Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented?
If in early stages, will the strategy establish feasibility and will particularly risky aspects be managed?
Have investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables (e.g., sex) for studies in vertebrate animals or human subjects (if applicable)?
Are there plans to establish and maintain communication and cooperation among Senior Persons and other users?
Are there adequate management plans for the Research and Service Cores, including implementation, allocation, NEI-R01 grantee user prioritization, quality control, and utilization of the Cores?
How well does the management plan address accountability, flow of authority, dispute resolution, evaluation and integration with the institution's fiscal and academic administrations?
Environment:
Will the scientific environment contribute to the probability of success?
Are institutional support, equipment and other physical resources adequate?
Will the project benefit from unique features of the scientific environment, subject populations, or collaborative arrangements?
Additional Review Criteria (Not Scored)
Protections for Human Subjects (if applicable):
Justification for involvement, adequacy of protection, potential benefits, importance of knowledge, data/safety monitoring.
Inclusion of Women, Racial and Ethnic Minorities, and Individuals Across the Lifespan (if applicable):
Evaluation of plans for inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals based on sex, race, ethnicity, and age.
Vertebrate Animals (if applicable):
Description of procedures, justifications for use, interventions to minimize discomfort, justification for euthanasia method.
Biohazards (if applicable):
Assessment of potential hazards and proposed protection.
Additional Review Considerations (Not Scored, but Considered)
Select Agent Research: Assessment of use, registration status, monitoring, biosafety, biocontainment, and security.
Resource Sharing Plans: Reasonableness of plan or rationale for not sharing.
Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources: Plans for identifying and ensuring validity.
Budget and Period of Support: Justification and reasonableness in relation to the proposed research.
Compliance & Special Requirements
Regulatory & Ethical Compliance
NIH Grants Policy Statement: All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Federal Civil Rights Laws: Recipients must complete an HHS Assurance of Compliance form (HHS 690) agreeing to administer programs in compliance with federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, sex, and disability. This includes ensuring meaningful access for limited English proficient individuals and effective communication with persons with disabilities.
Safe and Respectful Work Environment: HHS policy on administering programs in an environment free of sexual harassment and NIH's commitment to supporting a safe and respectful work environment apply.
Data Management and Sharing Policy: A Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan) is required for all applications planning research that generates scientific data, effective for due dates on or after January 25, 2023.
Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Independent Ethics Committee (IEC) Approval: Grantee institutions must ensure that protocols are reviewed by their IRB or IEC (if applicable, for secondary use of human data/specimens).
Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS): Recipients with active Federal grants totaling >$10,000,000 must report and maintain currency of information in SAM regarding civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings.
Project-Specific Limitations & Guidelines
Clinical Trials: This NOFO is for 'Clinical Trial Not Allowed' and applications proposing clinical trials will not be reviewed.
Human Subjects: Studies directly involving human subjects are not allowed. Cores can be accessed for secondary studies that use human specimens, cell lines, or data, provided these are stripped of identifiers and appropriate approvals are obtained from the individual research grants that supported their collection.
Foreign Components: Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply. Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed.
Equipment Purchases: While equipment is an eligible cost, this grant mechanism is not intended for the acquisition of high-cost equipment. Equipment purchases by any Resource Core in excess of $25,000 for any year of the grant would require special justification, documenting available equipment within the institution and providing clear justification in terms of core service.
Unique Aspects
NEI R01 Grant Base Requirement: A unique and critical eligibility criterion is the need for the applicant institution to have a minimum of 8 active NEI-supported R01 grants.
Core-Centric Support: The grant focuses exclusively on establishing and maintaining shared core facilities (Administrative, Resource, Service) to enhance existing vision research, not on funding new, independent research projects.
Emphasis on Collaboration & Efficiency: The grant strongly emphasizes how the proposed cores will enhance research, consolidate resources, avoid duplication, and facilitate collaborative studies, increasing productivity and impact of the research base.
Grant Details
vision research
ophthalmology
eye health
medical research
biomedical research
research infrastructure
shared resources
core facilities
scientific collaboration
resource management
p30 grant
national eye institute
nih
healthcare
research and development
us government funding
non-profit funding
university research
academic research
biological research
translational research
epidemiological research
behavioral research
data management
scientific data sharing
NEI Center Core Grant for Vision Research (P30 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Grants8