Extramural Policy and Review Activities

Reviews

For this council cycle, the Office of Extramural Affairs arranged and managed 24 review meetings for the reviews of 398 grant applications. These reviews included applications in standing review committees, applications in conflict-of-interest with standing committees, and submissions to special initiatives. In addition, OEA's Contracts Review Branch arranged and managed 11 contract proposal review meetings and 14 concept reviews.

NIDA's chartered committees consist of NIDA-E (Treatment Review Committee), NIDA-F (Health Services Review Committee), NIDA-L (Medications Development Committee), and NIDA-K (Training Committee). In addition to holding meetings of each of these committees, OEA staff held four Special Emphasis Panels to review applications in conflict with the chartered committees. Two Special Emphasis panels were constituted for reviews of specific mechanisms (unsolicited centers and conference grant applications), and 11 Special Emphasis Panels were held for the nine RFAs noted below. In addition, OEA staff managed the reviews for B/START, I/START, and Cutting Edge Basic Research Award mechanisms.

The following RFA reviews were held:

DA02-002	Inhalant Abuse: Supporting Broad-based Research Approaches
DA02-003	Expansion of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network
DA02-004	NIDA National Prevention Research Initiative (NNPRI): Community Multi-Site Prevention Trials (CMPT)
DA02-005	NIDA National Prevention Research Initiative (NNPRI): Transdisciplinary Prevention Research Centers
DA02-006	Modifying and Testing Efficacious Behavioral Therapies to Make Them More Community Friendly
DA02-008	Hepatitis C Diagnosis, Treatment, and Interaction with HIV/AIDS
DA02-009	New Approaches to Prevent HIV/Other Infections in Drug Users
DA02-010	NIDA's National Prevention Research Initiative: Using Basic Science to Develop New Directions in Drug Abuse Prevention Research
DA02-011	National Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Services Research System

The Contract Review Branch managed the following reviews:

N01DA-2-1106	NIDA's Science Meetings Logistic Support
N01DA-2-1206	NIDA's Contracts Review Logistics Support
N44DA-2-7716	Bio-Sensor Mass Spectrometry Array
N44DA-2-5512	Interactive CD-ROM Training for Prevention Providers
N44DA-2-5507	Preventing Substance Abuse with Multi-Media Life Science
N44DA-2-5511	Primary Care Adolescent Drug/Alcohol Screening Instrument
N44DA-2-5509	Automated Social Network Data Collection
N01DA-2-8822	Assessment of Potential Cocaine Treatment in Rodents
N01DA-3-8830	In Vitro Metabolism and Metabolite Quantification
N01DA-2-8824	Medications Development for Stimulant Dependence
N44DA-2-7716	Bio-Sensor Mass Spectrometry Array

Concept Reviews

N01DA-3-8831	Assessment of Potential Cocaine Treatment in Non-Human Primates
N01DA-3-8830	In Vitro Metabolism and Metabolite Quantification

SBIR Concepts

Design, Synthesis, Preclinical Testing and Scale-up of Novel Treatment Agents for Stimulant Abuse

Antibody based Therapies for Substance Abuse Treatment

Virtual Reality for the Treatment of Co-Morbid Drug Abuse and Post-Traumatic Stress

Pharmacovigilance Database for Anti-Addiction Medications

National Census of Therapeutic Community Treatment Services for Substance Abusers

Measurement Modules for Psychiatric Co-Morbidity Evaluation

Worksite Based Health Promotion for Youth

Synthesis of New Chemical Probes

Virtual Reality for Treatment of Pain or Drug Addiction

Technologies for Proteomic Analysis in the Nervous System

Development of Science Education Materials Related to the use of Animals in Research

Development of Testing Technology to Support Delivery of Linked Drug Abuse

Treatment and Primary Medical Care

Staff Training

The OEA Symposium Series, a forum for staff training and sharing of solutions to problems in extramural research administration, continued to meet monthly under the guidance of Dr. Mark Swieter, SRA, Basic Sciences Review Branch. In May, Dr. Carlos Caban, from the Office of Extramural Programs, NIH, came to discuss NIH requirements for data safety and monitoring plans, and Dr. Swieter and other NIDA staff participated in that presentation. In July, Dr. Gary Fleming, Chief, Grants Management Branch, NIDA, presented on ways to strengthen the collaborations between grants management staff and other NIDA staff.

OEA staff have been actively involved in "cross-training" activities to provide guidance on review policies and procedures for other NIDA staff who have assisted with reviews this summer. In particular, Drs. Marina Volkov, Mark Green, and Kay Nimit of the Clinical, Epidemiological, and Applied Sciences Review Branch and Dr. Mark Swieter have provided training. Drs. Kevin Conway and Rachel Schiffman provided valuable assistance beyond the usual level of program-review staff collaboration. Dr. Charles desBordes, who came under an IPA with the City College of New York, contributed to arranging and summarizing the reviews.

Extramural Activities Development

Three RFAs which made up the NIDA National Prevention Research Initiative (NNPRI) were reviewed this summer. These were developed by a cross-institute working group in which Drs. Mark Green and Marina Volkov of OEA's Clinical, Epidemiological, and Applied Sciences Review Branch actively participated to provide input on scientific issues and review perspectives.

Extramural Outreach

Dr. Teresa Levitin, Director, OEA, and Dr. Lula Beatty, Chief, Special Populations Office, organized, and Dr. Levitin chaired, a symposium entitled "National-International Health Disparities Research at NIDA" for the biennial meeting of The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues held in Toronto, Ontario, June 28-30, 2002.

On June 25, 2002, Dr. Mark Green, Chief, Clinical, Epidemiological, and Applied Sciences Review Branch, OEA, made a presentation about the review process to Morgan State University Students, as part of the 2002 Summer Research with NIDA Program for Underrepresented Minority Students.

Drs. Teresa Levitin, Mark Green and Mark Swieter of OEA organized and presented two workshops at the 64th annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Quebec City, Quebec, June 8-13, 2002. Dr. Swieter chaired the first workshop on Monday evening, with Drs. Green and Levitin as co-chairs. This workshop was on Career Development and was attended by about 100 people. Over 35 people attended the second workshop on Tuesday evening chaired by Dr. Green and co-chaired by Drs. Swieter and Levitin. This workshop was entitled "What's New at NIDA and NIH: How Will It Affect You?"

Mr. Richard Harrison, Chief, Contracts Review Branch, OEA, gave the invocation and participated in an American Indian ceremony for the Secretary's National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health, which was held July 10-12, 2002 in Washington, DC.

Mr. Eric Zatman, Contract Review Branch, OEA, met with private sector participants at the NIH Small Business Innovation Research Conference, held June 21, 2002 in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Khursheed Asghar, Chief, Basic Sciences Review Branch, OEA, conducted reviews of medications development applications in California this July to take advantage of the availability of scientists attending meetings of the International Narcotics Research Conference and the International Cannabinoids Research Society. By making his review meeting convenient for the reviewers, he was able to recruit successfully and also attend the meetings to represent OEA to scientists there.

Dr. Mark Swieter, Basic Sciences Review Branch, OEA, gave a talk at a Grant Writing workshop organized by Dr. Cindy Miner of OSPC and represented OEA at a meeting of the NIDA Training Grant Directors.