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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research, launched
in September 2003, is a series of far-reaching initiatives that are intended to
accelerate the pace of life science discovery from bench into practice for the
benefit of the public. The NIH Roadmap is focused on efforts that no single NIH
Institute could tackle alone but that the agency as a whole must address.
Spearhead by Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), with input from over 300 nationally recognized leaders in
academia, industry, government and the public, the NIH Roadmap addresses major
opportunities and gaps in biomedical research. The three areas of focus
include: New Pathways to Discovery, which will deepen our understanding of
biology; Research Teams of the Future, focused on stimulating the creation of
interdisciplinary research teams; and Re-engineering the Clinical Research
Enterprise, a challenge to rethink how we approach health care. (For more
information visit: http://nihroadmap.nih.gov
and NIH Roadmap FAQs)
NIH consulted extensively with its stakeholders--scientists, health care
providers, and the public--to identify and prioritize the most pressing
problems facing medical research today that can be uniquely addressed by the
NIH. The initiatives to be funded beginning in FY 2004, were selected because
of their potential for having the biggest impact on the progress of medical
research.
The NIH Roadmap initiative has three main themes:
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New Pathways to Discovery: Initiatives within this theme address
technologies and approaches necessary to meet contemporary research challenges
such as grasping the emerging complexity of biology, understanding biological
systems as well as structural biology; molecular libraries and imaging,
nanomedicine, bioinformatics, and computational biology.
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Research Teams of the Future: Initiatives within this theme include
interdisciplinary research, high risk research, and public-private
partnerships.
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Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise: Initiatives within this
theme address the need for creating better integrated networks of academic
centers that work together in developing strategies to reenergize the clinical
research workforce.
Many funding opportunities including new initiatives and re-announcements exist to participate in the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. FY 2004 Initiatives that are being re-announced include:
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Assay Technology Development
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National Technology Centers for Networks and Pathways
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National Centers for Biomedical Computing
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Short Programs for Interdisciplinary Research Training
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Interdisciplinary Health Research Training
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NIH Pioneer's Awards
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Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Programs.
Visit the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research Web site for up-to-date information
on research announcements. http://nihroadmap.nih.gov
NIH Roadmap initiatives are funded through a combination of funds appropriated
to the NIH Director's Discretionary Fund in the Office of the NIH Director, and
from contributions from the NIH Institutes and Centers (0.34 percent of their
budgets for FY 2004, and 0.63 percent of their budgets for FY 2005.)
The total published budget for FY 2004 is $128 million. It is estimated that
NIH Roadmap initiatives will be funded at $237 million in FY 2005.
Through FY 2009, each Institutes and Center's annual contribution to the
Roadmap is likely to be less than 1 percent of their appropriation.
NCI's contribution to FY 2004 NIH Roadmap Initiatives is $16.3 million. The
Fiscal Year 2005 estimate is $30.7 million.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is playing a role in a number of activities
in the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. NCI is contributing its expertise to
the theme areas and initiatives that align most closely with the Institute's
strategic priorities and overall mission. The NCI is recognized for its
leadership in the areas of imaging and for its extensive data on agents that
have been developed or considered for development as drugs. This NCI expertise
is being applied to advancing the Roadmap Initiative to develop a Comprehensive
Trans NIH Imaging Probe Database, an effort that is closely integrated with the
PubChem database initiative. The NCI is providing data for over 250,000
compounds that will be available through this public database.
NCI is actively participating in two initiatives intended to strengthen
translational resources within the Re-engineering the Clinical Research
Enterprise component of the NIH Roadmap. The NIH Roadmap Translational Research
Core Services initiative is modeled after the NCI Rapid Access to Intervention
Development (RAID) program and will give applicants access to impressive
centralized contract resources and expertise. NCI's Developmental Therapeutics
Program is providing the infrastructure and expertise for this initiative. The
second area in which NCI is heavily involved is The Regional Translational
Research Centers' (RTRC ) initiative, which is intended increase interactions
between basic and clinical scientists in order to accelerate translational
development of new drugs, biomarkers, and treatment strategic from the lab to
clinical testing.
NCI is providing its cutting edge and visionary bioinformatics expertise to
help build a national platform upon which clinical efforts can be built,
integrated and networked. Finally NCI is also involved in the Research Teams of
the Future theme, recognizing that interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary
research teams are necessary for making the next quantum advances in science.
The NCI and its research community are uniquely positioned to participate
actively in the NIH Roadmap efforts which in turn will contribute to the NCI
challenge goal to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer.
NCI's Cancer Nanotechnology Plan is complementary to, yet distinct from, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Nanomedicine component of the Roadmap Initiative.
The NCI's Cancer Nanotechnology Plan (CNPlan)
The NCI's Cancer Nanotechnology Plan (CNPlan) focuses on using knowledge from basic research discoveries and translating that into clinical oncology applications. The endpoints of this effort will be technology platforms in the context of diagnostics and therapeutics. The CNPlan is complementary, not duplicative, to the NIH's Roadmap activity. The NCI:
- Has a 5-year history of funding grant proposals focused on advancing the field of nanotechnology to address the immediate mission of the NCI,
- Will use the results from this investment to continue to drive this initiative forward and encourage the development of nanotechnology platforms for cancer research and clinical application,
- Will leverage the discoveries made as part of the Roadmap's Nanomedicine to promote development of new products for the clinic,
- Has included a training component,
- Encourages a multidisciplinary approach to nanotechnology,
- Will collaborate with other Federal agencies in order to leverage resources, including the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
- The NCI has committed $144.3M in funding for cancer directed Nanotechnology in the next five years.
The NCI has advanced its agenda in nanotechnology in collaboration with those involved in the NIH Roadmap Nanomedicine Initiative. The NCI anticipates continued support and participation with the NIH Nanomedicine Implementation Group, as well as other working groups, where appropriate.
Nanomedicine component of the NIH Roadmap
The NIH Roadmap begins with challenges and opportunities associated with basic research, leading to fundamentally new clinical applications in 8-10 years.
The vision for the Nanomedicine component of the Roadmap is to:
- Characterize quantitatively the physical and chemical properties of molecules in cells,
- Gain an understanding of the engineering principles used in living cells to "build" molecules, molecular complexes, organelles, cells, and tissues,
- Ultimately, use the knowledge of properties and design principles to develop new technologies, and engineer devices and hybrid structures, for repairing tissues as well as preventing and curing disease,
- Fund Centers to use and develop nanotechnology to examine biological and disease processes pertinent to the missions of many of the NIH institutes,
- Stimulate research scientists from physically oriented disciplines such as chemistry, physics, mathematics and engineering to work with clinicians and biomedical scientists to cultivate new, multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving and develop specific nanotechnologies that can be applied to biomedicine.
- The NIH Roadmap has committed approximately $80M to the Nanomedicine Initiative.
NCI's seven strategic priority areas, which play a unique role in helping us
reach our 2015 Challenge Goal to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer,
relate closely with the NIH Roadmap themes. NCI's strategic priority areas
include: molecular epidemiology; integrative cancer biology; cancer prevention,
early detection, and prediction; strategic development of cancer interventions;
an integrated clinical trials system; overcoming health disparities; and
advanced technologies.
A number of NIH Roadmap funding opportunities (including RFAs, RFPs, BAA, etc)
have been issued to date (see Grants and Funding Opportunities
for details). Others are being discussed by Roadmap Implementation Groups,
which are made up of representatives from NIH Institutes and Centers.
The URL for the NIH Roadmap Web site is http://nihroadmap.nih.gov.
As the NIH Roadmap initiatives move forward, plan and progress will be posted
on the NIH Roadmap Web site.
Add your name to receive up-to-date information on
Roadmap initiatives and funding opportunities. Go to
Listserve and Click on "Subscribe to NIH Roadmap E-mail
list"
The NIH home page can be found at http://www.nih.gov.
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