The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is soliciting proposals from UNMC faculty in response to the Request for Applications (RFA) from the National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program.
UNMC is eligible to compete for research support through the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program of the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
NIGMS has issued an RFA announcing the 2018 and 2019 rounds of COBRE competition. UNMC has a long history of competing successfully for these $10 million awards and is now eligible to submit an application for a new COBRE grant. Only one proposal may be submitted per eligible institution per fiscal year. The eligible institution is responsible for selecting and approving that project before it can be submitted.
One of the principal mechanisms of IDeA support for research is the COBRE grant, which supports thematic, multidisciplinary centers that augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity. This is accomplished by expanding and developing biomedical faculty research capability and enhancing research infrastructure, including the establishment of core facilities needed to carry out the objectives of a multidisciplinary, collaborative program.
NIH-funded investigators with expertise central to the theme of the grant proposal lead these centers. The centers promote collaborative, interactive efforts among researchers with complementary backgrounds, skills and expertise.
In some instances, COBRE support facilitates the development of new, disease-specific research centers or augments the capability of existing centers. Researchers supported through COBRE are expected to compete independently for external peer-reviewed grant support.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research evaluates potential UNMC proposals for COBRE grants and is currently soliciting outlines of prospective projects that could be developed into full-scale COBRE proposals for the Jan. 24, 2018 deadline.
Senior scientists are encouraged to submit a two-page outline of their proposed project that summarizes how they propose to address each of the COBRE components, which can be downloaded here. Outlines should follow this template format.
These two-page summaries are due to Deb Hawkins on April 15.
From these summaries, UNMC deans and directors (or their designates) will identify the project to develop into a full COBRE proposal for submission by Jan. 24, 2018. The PI/PD of the project will be notified by July 1, 2017. Questions can be directed to Paula Turpen at 402-559-6162