Funding Opportunity Description

Background

The Catalyst Award in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases (Catalyst-DEMD) is intended to support investigators developing bold, innovative, and often risky approaches to address significant and intractable problems in DEMD research. To be considered pioneering or catalyzing, the proposed research must reflect approaches substantially different from the current state-of-the-art, or ideas outside the mainstream of contemporary research. The program is not intended to expand a current research program's funding in the area of the proposed project, but instead must reflect a fundamental new insight or understanding that will revolutionize the field. Catalyzing advances may emanate from the application of exceptionally innovative approaches and/or from testing radically unconventional hypotheses.

Catalyst awardees are required to commit a substantial portion of their research effort (at least 4 person-months) to activities supported by the award. Effort expended toward teaching, administrative, or clinical duties should not be included in this calculation. For example, 33% effort in a 12-month calendar appointment would equal approximately 4.0 person-months (12 x 0.33 = 4.0). For Additional details regarding how effort may be calculated in person-months, please refer to information posted on the NIH Office of Extramural Research website (here). Investigators who will not be able to meet this requirement should not submit applications.

Research Scope

Research in areas that are primarily within the mission of other divisions of NIDDK, or that focus on scientific areas overseen by other Institutes or Centers (ICs) of the NIH are not appropriate for this FOA and will not be supported.

Applications submitted to this FOA should be directly focused on diseases or conditions that are central to the mission of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases (DEMD) of the NIDDK. This includes research focused on:

• Diabetes: diabetes and other metabolic disorders, including inborn errors of metabolism and rare genetic metabolic diseases such as lipodystrophy and maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY); non-pulmonary aspects of cystic fibrosis pathogenesis and pathophysiology; metabolic or endocrine complications related to HIV or anti-retroviral therapy; complications of diabetes that affect multiple organ systems, or the specific complications of diabetic foot ulcers, peripheral sensory neuropathy, and neurovascular or neurocognitive complications of diabetes.

• Endocrinology: development, metabolism and basic biology of the endocrine system including pathophysiology of endocrine disorders involving thyroid and parathyroid; neuroendocrinology of energy balance, including neural pathways and peptides that regulate feeding behavior, satiety and energy expenditure;

• Metabolism: mechanisms regulating metabolism, metabolic dysfunction and tissue crosstalk in specific peripheral tissues such as adipose, bone, muscle, or liver; effects of the intrauterine environment on metabolic responses in offspring.

Topics outside of the areas noted above that are within the mission of other NIH ICs, or other divisions of NIDDK will not be considered responsive to this initiative. For example, nonresponsive topics include diabetic cardiovascular disease (NHLBI); diabetic retinopathy and non-autoimmune ophthalmopathy (NEI); diabetic nephropathy and uropathy, or studies of the Renin-Angiotensin system (supported by NIDDK's Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases Division); diabetic gastroparesis, Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, or complications of obesity (supported by NIDDK's Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Division).

In addition, studies focusing on the primary prevention or treatment of gestational diabetes, or the immediate pregnancy outcomes of women with diabetes are in NICHD mission areas. Reproductive endocrinology is also not within the mission of NIDDK and studies on this topic will not be supported under this announcement.

Prior to submitting an application, investigators are strongly encouraged to contact the Scientific/Research Contact for this FOA to discuss the appropriateness of the proposed research for this FOA.