PROGRAM SYNOPSIS:

The High-End Instrument (HEI) Grant Program encourages applications from groups of NIH-supported investigators to purchase or upgrade a single item of expensive, specialized, commercially available instrumentation or an integrated system that costs at least $750,000. The maximum award is $2,000,000. Types of instruments supported include, but are not limited to, biomedical imagers, ultrahigh-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers, mass spectrometers, electron microscopes and supercomputers among others. The HEI program will not support requests for the development of new instruments, general purpose equipment, clinical care instruments or instruments bundled together to meet the minimum. 

For eligibility, a major user group of three or more investigators who are Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) on active NIH research grants with the following activity codes, P01, R01, U01, R35, R37, DP1 and DP2 must be identified. Once this eligibility requirement has been met, additional users with other types of active NIH research grants (such as but not limited to R00, R03, R21, P30, P41, P50) mechanisms can be added as major or minor users. NIH training grants and contracts are not eligible. To demonstrate the clear need for the requested instrumentation, the projects supported by NIH research grants should together require at least 75 percent of instrument time. 

Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct. Thus, this is a limited submission initiative at NU and there is an internal vetting process for this program. Investigators interested in submitting a proposal to NIH are required to follow the instructions in the attached document. No proposal will be submitted by OSR that has not followed these procedures.

DEADLINE(S): August 9, 2013 (mandatory internal letters of intent due), September 13, 2013 (full proposal due to NIH)

COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES:

The Office of Research Development offers assistance in identifying and facilitating collaborations, putting together interdisciplinary teams, programmatic and administrative development of large, cross-school proposals, and leveraging institutional resources for outreach and education. Contact Fruma Yehiely ([log in to unmask]), Director of ORD, for more information.