2023-11-29 NIH RM1 BTOD concept discussion Meeting notes

 Date

Nov 29, 2023

 Participants

  • @James Eastwood

  • @David Mobley

  • @John Chodera

  • Alvin Yeh (NIGMS)

  • Han Nguyen

 Goals

  • Present concept for BTOD application to program officers

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 Discussion topics

Time

Item

Presenter

Notes

Time

Item

Presenter

Notes

 

 

 

  • OMSF can hire software engineers so we don’t have to shoehorn skilled people into postdoc positions

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Definition of DBPs





  • AY – interplay between TOPs and DBPs

    • DBPs aren’t going to be evaluated

    • Their interaction with TOPs will be evaluated

    • TOPs need to make technology accessible to non-experts

  • AY – dissemination sounds like it’s already a major focus

    • Needs to become self-sustaining within up to 15 years

    • CE activities need to keep it going

  • DM – can we present indsutrial applications as DBPs

    • They might not be able to disclose their use in any detail

    • AY – reviewers will evaluate how that industrial use contributes to optimization of the technology

    • collaborations with DBPs are not expected to persist through entire lifespan of center

    • Need to elaborate a process for turning over DBPs

    • HN – Industrial users need to provide feedback to promote optimization

    • JC & DM – yes, Bayer (in particular) is very good about that

  • JC – admin & management plan

    • Scientific leadership from academics

    • professional management

      • PM, Project leads, technical leads

    • Equipment budget – can we spend this on cloud computing infrastructure?

      • Don’t have an answer on that yet, but leaning toward on-site physical equipment

      • contract for services probably will be excluded

      • DM – there may be a route through UCI, where we buy compute equipment and park it at UCI

    • Does the admin & managememnt structure, where scientific leadership is external and professional staff is internal, work?

      • AY – we don’t put too many requirements here

        • We don’t want to exploit students or postdocs

  • JC – sustainability plans

    • OMSF creates industry consortia

    • When these projects are “too big to fail” for industry, they will support

    • HN – create a plan for gradual growth into sustainability, long-term and short-term.

    • AY – more important for subsequent renewals. But definitely important to have a plan for how dissemination will continue after the center

  • JC – overlap with R01

    • Do we have to relinquish R01?

    • Segregate functions over the lifetime of R01?

    • AY – MIRA awardees can have BTODs

      • MIRA funds experimental work

      • BTOD funds optimization

      • These questions can be resolved prior to award (after submission)

    • HN – just need to be clear what is optimization and what is method development

    • JC – maybe we carve out optimization from the R01, and remaining research activities are supported on reduced budget

      • HN – it’s my job to figure this out

  • JC – what is the role of letters of support (beyond DBPs)?

    • AY – NOFO has a section on letters of support

      • hidden in submission instructions

      • limited to institutional support, projects that are described in the application itself

      • information there is the nature of the collaboration

  • JC – is the January deadline workable for you POs?

    • HN – If you can do it, go for it!

    • AY – agreed.

    • JC – it’s a cakewalk compared to other applications I have submitted recently

    • DM – we are already doing most of this, with different support, so it’s not too hard to describe

    • HN – you have to be able to describe connection between TOPs and feedback mechanisms

      • some applications are criticized for missing this

      • include a diagram for each project

        • information they provide to you can be used as input to do more refinement

    • JC – no particular advantages / disadvantages to any of the upcoming application deadlines?

      • AY & HN – correct

      • AY – time to award will be different because of fiscal year

        • JC – it’s 11 months either way, no?

        • AY – but the March decisions deadline aligns with federal budget, but if we don’t have a budget we can’t fund. So there’s not much pressure to get it in in January

      • AY we have mail-in reviews that evaluate the science, engagement plans

        • Panel is an editorial process that takes in the mail-in reviews and evaluates the entire project

      • DM – do you expect funding rates to be different between the deadlines?

        • AY – applications tend to be held till later rounds if we can’t make a decision. From year-to-year, we don’t anticipate funding rate changing dramatically

        • Program, senior staff, and counsel are involved in secondary review

        • HN – NOFO has been around more than 1 year already

          • We hope to get a large number of applications coming in after that webinar

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 Action items

 Decisions