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Closing Date:
Status:
Closed
Funding Type:
Fund:
860000 USD-Direct Costs / Year
Activity Country:
Citizenship:
Residency:
Duration:
5 Years
LoI:
Estimated Grants:
5
Published Date:
The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to invite applications from entities/institutions to participate as a Research Center (RC) in the Stillbirth Research Consortium. This NOFO runs in parallel with the Stillbirth Research Center Data Coordinating Center (see RFA-HD-25-011). The RCs and DCC together will establish an integrated and collaborative Stillbirth Research Consortium to support cutting-edge basic, translational, clinical and/or data sciences research to generate knowledge for advancement in stillbirth-relevant research across the United States, with a particular emphasis on approaches that utilize an equity lens to identify ways to decrease the incidence of stillbirth in vulnerable populations. Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the NOFO instructions carefully.
This Notice of Fuding Opportunity (NOFO) requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP).
It is essential to conduct rigorous research to elucidate the specific mechanisms responsible for stillbirth and to inform evidence-based interventions that mitigate these risks. The cause of stillbirth is often multifactorial with maternal, placental, and fetal contributions. A wide variety of risk factors, including pregnancy complications, chronic health conditions, genetics, environmental factors, and social determinants of health, are associated with stillbirth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, known risk factors account for a limited proportion of the variation in stillbirth rates. Investigating the factors contributing to stillbirth will provide valuable insights into the prevention of stillbirth and the promotion of maternal and fetal health across diverse populations. A goal of the Stillbirth Research Consortium is to build synergy among awarded Research Centers to maximize resources to deeply probe this serious adverse pregnancy outcome. Projects that aim to address both individual and systemic factors to reduce the incidence of stillbirth are of high programmatic interest.
The following are provided as research examples. Applicants are not limited to those listed below:
Investigate the genetic contribution of parental, conceptus and fetal polymorphisms and de novo mutations in stillbirth.
Investigate gene function involved in stillbirth to provide the causal link between possible genetic variants and patient phenotypes.
Conduct methodological research on improving accuracy of stillbirth data collection and other data needed to identify disparities in stillbirth.
Identify social, behavioral, and structural factors that impact the likelihood of experiencing stillbirth.
Develop entirely new technology or modify existing technology to achieve transformational improvements in real-time assessment of placental in vivo structural/functional status across pregnancy to uncover and address placental causes of stillbirth.
Elucidate the racial, ethnic, and nativity disparities impacting stillbirth.
Develop research capacity that serves specific contexts and communities with emphasis on highest burden settings.
Conduct clinical trials that will lead to stillbirth risk reduction through known interventions.
Conduct translational and implementation research to lead to a better understanding of effective interventions.
Determine causes of and differential susceptibility to infection, and maternal-fetal immune responses associated with stillbirth, utilizing high dimensional system biology approaches.
Develop novel techniques, interventions, methodologies, and computational models that could aid in stratifying and targeting high-risk populations to substantially advance research and stillbirth prevention.
Investigate tools to assess the emotional support needed by birthing people and families after stillbirth due to pregnancy or childbirth complications.
Investigate best practices in supporting health-care workers caring for people experiencing stillbirth.
Develop non-invasive techniques/methods or minimally invasive autopsy techniques for detecting cause of death to increase autopsy uptake rates and contribute to the identification of cause of death to aid in the development of stillbirth prevention strategies.
Develop predictive models to assess the likelihood of stillbirth integrating genetic, environmental, and medical status and history.
Conduct research on neonatal and infant mortality trends and disparities in relation to stillbirths in the United States.
Determine the relationship and quantify the effects of environmental and climate change (ECC) factors (e.g. air and water pollutants, heatwaves, infections, food insecurity) on the occurrence of stillbirth. Identify specific ECC factors associated with increased risk of stillbirth.
Identify vulnerable populations and the social, political, economic and cultural factors that exacerbate exposure and diminish resilience to CCH resulting in increased incidence of stillbirth.
Investigate potential interventions or adaptations that could mitigate the impact of ECC factors on stillbirth rates. Develop strategies to increase public awareness and understanding of the link between ECC and stillbirth and ways to minimize risks.
The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) advances and disseminates research on dietary supplements to foster knowledge and optimize health across the lifespan. Dietary supplement ingredients are defined as including vitamins, minerals, herbs and other botanicals, amino acids, and other dietary or bioactive substances, consumed as dietary supplements to promote health and prevent disease. For this NOFO, ODS is interested in identification of maternal dietary and nutritional factors (environmental, behavioral, mechanistic) and their associations with stillbirth, especially (but not exclusively) the following:
Dietary intake and levels of methyl donors and other micronutrients involved in one-carbon metabolism (i.e. vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, betaine, methionine, thiamine, riboflavin, and zinc, individually or in combination) before and during pregnancy.
Vitamin B supplementation and excess folic acid intake.
Pre-pregnancy obesity, excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) during pregnancy, and associated risks of placental dysfunction, hypertension and diabetes, inflammation, and sleep apnea.
Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy, including complications such as fetal growth restriction (FGR), and effects of excess iron intake from supplements.
Protein intake during gestation, and the impact of low or high protein intake on FGR
Dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
Poor maternal pregnancy diets (overall), including those lacking in key nutrients such as iron, iodine, calcium, vitamin D, folate and zinc, and their associations with anemia, pre-eclampsia, and hemorrhage.
The ODS does not award grants and only accepts co-funding requests from NIH Institutes and Centers; therefore, applications submitted to this NOFO must be relevant to the objectives of the NOFO. For questions regarding funding priorities, please contact the NICHD Scientific/Research Contact named in this NOFO. For additional information about ODS, please visit http://ods.od.nih.gov. Projects must propose research aims that are within the mission of NICHD and the scientific interest areas identified in this NOFO in order to be considered responsive to this NOFO. Applications proposing projects with any of the following characteristics will be considered non-responsive to this NOFO and will not be reviewed:
Research that is exclusively an efficacy study.
Comparative research on stillbirths in the United States versus other countries is within the scope of this initiative. Research that does not include a major U.S. component is not within scope.
Research only involving populations outside the United States.
While each funded Research Center will be largely self-sufficient, the investigators will be expected to devote a portion of their effort to participate in collaborative activities post-award; restricted funds will be used for these activities (see R&R Budget section). Awardees may be charged with developing synergistic/collaborative projects, resources for the community, and outreach activities. All awardees will be required to interact closely with each other, engage in collaborative activities, and share resources, data, ideas and expertise that are beyond the scope of a single research team.
The Stillbirth Research Consortium will establish a governing Steering Committee composed of the PD/PI(s), key research scientists, and the NIH Project Scientist(s) for each Program to assist in monitoring and developing the scientific content and direction of the program. When included in the Steering Committee, outside experts are chosen by the PD/PI(s) in consultation with the NIH Project Scientist and Program Official. Each named member of the Steering Committee will have one vote, except the NIH Program Official. The Steering Committee members will meet periodically to review and monitor progress, plan and design research activities, and establish priorities. The Steering Committee will prioritize concepts and select the protocol(s) to be conducted in collaboration with the NIH. A decision to fund a particular Research Center(s) will not commit the Stillbirth Research Consortium to developing proposed protocol concepts by recipients into clinical protocols.
The NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing expects researchers to maximize the sharing of scientific data and for data to be accessible as soon as possible and no later than the time of an associated publication or the end of the award period, whichever comes first. NIH requires all applications submitted in response to this NOFO to include a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan). The DMS Plan is expected to address the Elements as described in Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Elements of an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan (NOT-OD-21-014) The DMS Plan will be reviewed and approved by NIH Program Staff prior to award. Awardees will be required to comply with their approved DMS Plan and any approved updates.
For human data, NICHD encourages the use of the Data and Specimen Hub (DASH), a centralized resource for researchers to store and access de-identified data from studies funded by NICHD. For projects generating large-scale human genetic data, applicants should provide a Provisional or Institutional Certification specifying whether the individual-level data can be shared through an NIH approved repository, such as dbGaP and the Sequence Read Archive, in line with the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy. If the use of DASH is not feasible, NICHD expects awardees to share data through other equivalent broad-sharing data repositories.
For applications that aim to co-analyze already shared data with data that have not yet been shared with the broader research community, applicants should be aware that such primary data should be shared with the broad research community.
Additional information on the Data Management and Sharing Policy is available on the NICHD Office of Data Science and Sharing website.
The NIH recognizes that teams comprised of investigators with diverse perspectives working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct viewpoints outperform homogeneous teams. There are many benefits that flow from a scientific workforce rich with diverse perspectives, including: fostering scientific innovation, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to robust learning environments, improving the quality of the research, advancing the likelihood that underserved populations participate in, and benefit from research, and enhancing public trust.
To support the best science, the NIH encourages inclusivity in research guided by the consideration of diverse perspectives. Broadly, diverse perspectives can include but are not limited to the educational background and scientific expertise of the people who perform the research; the populations who participate as human subjects in research studies; and the places where research is done.
This NOFO requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP), which will be assessed as part of the scientific and technical peer review evaluation. Assessment of applications containing a PEDP are based on the scientific and technical merit of the proposed project. Consistent with federal law, the race, ethnicity, or sex of a researcher, award participant, or trainee will not be considered during the application review process or when making funding decisions. Applications that fail to include a PEDP will be considered incomplete and will be administratively withdrawn before review.
The PEDP will be submitted as Other Project Information as an attachment (see Section IV). Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the NOFO instructions carefully and view the available PEDP guidance materials.
Investigators proposing NIH-defined clinical trials may refer to the Research Methods Resources website for information about developing statistical methods and study designs.
Fellowship
250000 GBP
Research Grant
1000000 USD
Network Grant
47000000 USD
Travel Grant
3000 GBP
Research Grant
Not Specified
Research Grant
275000 USD