News
NIDDK Funding Calls
Feb 4, 2015
The NIH Common Fund Program on Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) has released its first request for applications, RFA-RM-15-002: Exploratory Technologies to Understand the Control of Organ Function by the Peripheral Nervous System for SPARC (U18). This RFA solicits applications to develop new and/or enhance existing tools and technologies tailored to elucidate the neurobiology and neurophysiology underlying autonomic control of internal organs in health or disease, to inform next generation neuromodulation therapies.
SPARC is uniquely positioned to serve as a community resource that provides the broader public and private research communities with the scientific foundation necessary to create more effective and minimally invasive neuromodulation therapies. The program has the central goal of providing a basic understanding of the peripheral nervous system to catalyze development of new or more efficacious therapies based on neuromodulation of end-organ system function. This first step will support exploratory studies to develop a broad range of technologies, spanning sensing to stimulation to surgical techniques to model systems. The 2 year awards resulting from this FOA will establish feasibility for further technology development and lay the groundwork to more systematically facilitate biological mapping activities in future SPARC initiatives.
Detailed in the FOA, the cooperative agreement mechanism will involve active participation in SPARC program events and NIH partnership in supporting and stimulating the recipients’ activities.
Due Dates: Letter of Intent – March 14, 2015, Application – April 14, 2015
Please contact SPARC_NextGen-Tools@mail.nih.gov if you have any questions regarding this funding opportunity. In addition, please feel free to share this announcement with your colleagues.
