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Associated with Research Grants?
Submitted to External Agencies
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 NIH AREA Grants
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When applying for funding to granting agencies outside of Ohio University, it is important to understand what is referred to as "indirect costs," "overhead return," or "facilities and administrative costs." These terms refer to the portion of the grant budget that is paid to Ohio University to support the associated costs of doing the project beyond what is included in the budget as direct costs. The indirect cost rate for research grants to federal agencies such as NIH and NSF is 44% of the direct costs. Other agencies may specify either a fixed percentage (usually ranging from 25 to 45% of the direct costs) or may negotiate the amount directly with the university. Thus, if you receive a grant with $100,000 in direct costs, the university will receive an extra $25,000-$45,000 for indirect costs.
As the indirect costs are paid to the university during the grant period, they are divided in one of two ways.
For grants submitted directly by one or more principal investigators (PI's), the university retains 65% of indirect costs. The remaining 35% is distributed as follows:
For grants submitted by one or more principal investigators (PI's) through a Center or Institute, the university retains 50% of indirect costs. The remaining 50% is distributed as follows:
Indirect costs returned to PI's is placed in an ongoing individual research incentive account that can be used for any reasonable research or professional development expenses, including journal subscriptions, dues, travel, equipment or supply purchases, salary for support staff, etc. The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs oversees these accounts to ensure that the funds are used appropriately.
Questions regarding research incentive accounts and indirect costs should be addressed to Jack Blazyk, Jack Brose, Al Pheley, or Judi Rioch.
This issue of COMquest features a newer member of the Department of Biomedical Science, Richard Klabunde, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiology. Dr. Klabunde has a Ph.D. in cardiovascular physiology from the University of Arizona, and previous medical school faculty experience. His desire to return to academia brought him to OU-COM in 1998 from the Deborah Research Institute, an affiliate of the Deborah Heart and Lung Center, in New Jersey. He was the Director of the Research Institute and was actively involved in basic and applied cardiovascular research.
Dr. Klabunde's research interest is in the area of regulation of blood flow and cardiac function. Since 1990, when he was with Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, Dr. Klabunde has been researching the role of nitric oxide in cardiovascular regulation and function, particularly in septic shock. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important factor that contributes to septic shock, a condition resulting from bacterial infection in the blood. Statistics show that 400,000 Americans develop septic shock each year, and 100,000 deaths occur. Septic shock is the number one cause of death in hospital ICU's. When the body becomes infected, an uncontrolled inflammatory response to the infection can occur that damages organs throughout the body.
A multi-year grant from the American Heart Association is providing Dr. Klabunde the opportunity to investigate mechanisms involved in septic shock that result in damage to blood vessels. His research focuses on three main factors, 1) nitric oxide, 2) platelet activating factor (PAF), and 3) oxygen free radicals, and how these three factors contribute to microvascular dysfunction.
With the use of hamster cheek pouch microcirculatory preparation, he studies arteriolar function, and macro-molecular and fluid leakage across capillaries and venules. Under general anesthetic, septic shock is induced in the animal by injecting endotoxin - a bacterial product. The pouch is then pulled out and everted, and the blood vessels are studied under the microscope. Injection of fluorescent dextran into the circulation enables him to visualize fluid leakage from blood vessels into the tissue. Dr. Klabunde can then administer various drugs that inhibit the effect of the endotoxin and study their impact on the three factors listed above. These drugs are used as tools for pre-clinical basic research into the mechanisms of septic shock.
A recent COM research award is allowing Dr. Klabunde to do a preliminary feasibility study on the use of antioxidants to prevent cardiac damage in septic shock. He hopes this will lead to external funding to discover new therapeutic interventions for septic shock.
As the result of a grant funded by the Ohio Department of Human Services, Office of Medicaid Policy, Christopher Simpson, D.O. heads a team of investigators from three Ohio institutions of higher learning. These institutions include Ohio Universityıs College of Osteopathic Medicine and Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD), Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, and Youngstown State University. This team is working cooperatively with colleagues from the Ohio Department of Human Services (ODHS) to identify a cluster of Appalachian counties as a possible site for a managed care system
The ODHS is becoming a more effective value purchaser of health care. In keeping with this initiative, the ODHS Office of Medicaid Policy (OMP) is reviewing Medicaid managed care options in rural Appalachian Ohio. The OMP recognizes that there are significant problems associated with instituting managed care in these rural areas. Nevertheless, the OMP staff believes that a well-planned Medicaid managed care program with local support could improve access to quality health care at a reasonable cost.
Managed care is not new to Appalachian Ohio. The Medical Foundation of Bellaire, established by the United Mine Workers and a group of local physicians in Belmont County in the 1960ıs, became one of the first Health Maintenance Organizations in the State in 1978. However, HMOıs have generally not fared well in the Appalachian marketplace. Fewer covered lives, diverse and expansive geographic area, poor local transportation, high rates of chronic illness and shortages of providers continue to pose barriers for the institution of a managed care system. Medicaid fee-for-service in the region has not guaranteed optimal health care for enrolled persons. Access is particularly difficult in the regionıs designated Health Professional Shortage Areas.
The research team is using knowledge of the region and objective data to identify clusters of contiguous counties as possible sites for the pilot project. After comparing each cluster to criteria required for successful implementation of the program, the research team will recommend a pilot site.
PI: Xiao Chen, Ph.D., Mark McMills, Ph.D.
Agency: NSF
Title: Nucleolytic dipeptide Ser-His and development of artificial site-specific NDA/RNA cleavage molecules
Amount: $377,126
PI: Calvin James, Ph.D.
Agency: NIH
Title: Mutating C-MYC promoter to alter polymerase affinity
Amount: $66,828
PI: Don Spaeth, D.O.
Agency: NIH
Title: The carpal tunnel and osteopathic medicine
Amount: $514,194
PI: John Howell, Ph.D.
Agency: NIH
Title: Osteopathic treatment of somatic dysfunction
Amount: $423,787
PI: Bonita Biegalke, Ph.D.
Agency: Ohio Cancer Research Associates
Title: Immune evasion by NCMV: Analysis of US3 proteins
Amount: $50,000
by Al Pheley
In 1984, the National Institutes of Health implemented a funding program entitled the Academic Research Enhancement Award, more commonly known as the AREA program. The program is designed to enhance the development of investigators, strengthen the research environment at the school, and expose more students to positive research experiences. The intent is to provide a mechanism that will allow potential new-NIH investigators to more ably compete for support. These health-related grants are not available to all schools. Only those institutions having less than $2 million total costs in NIH funding for four or more of the last seven years are eligible. Ohio University and the College of Osteopathic Medicine currently meet these criteria.
In addition, the Principal Investigator (PI) may not be the PI of any other current NIH grant including AREA grants, and the proposed research must be conducted primarily at the grantee institution with limited exceptions for projects requiring special facilities or equipment.
Large projects are not funded under the AREA program. Instead, it is designed to provide support for small projects including feasibility, pilot, secondary data analysis, and other developmental types of projects, the data from which would be used to enhance competitive R01 (larger, investigator initiated) research grants. Therefore, grants are limited to $100,000. The funding request can be spread over one to three years. Each of the Institutes at the NIH is involved in the program.
AREA grant application deadlines are May 25, September 25, and January 25 of each year. If you have a smaller project that you would like to get funding for, we encourage you to consider the AREA grant. Please contact Al Pheley at 740-593-2411 or pheley@ohiou.edu to discuss your project or to get additional information.
by John Dooley
In a previous column we discussed the Student t-test, a statistical procedure designed to evaluate the differences between two, and only two study groups. The t-test compares the mean (average) of each group and determines the probability that the observed differences between the two groups was due to chance.
Often, however, we are interested in comparing more than two groups. Analysis of variance, commonly called ANOVA for short, is used to determine if the observed differences between groups of observations, in terms of means and variance, are greater than would expected by chance alone. The test can be applied to independent groups as well as repeated measures designs. With moderate to large sample sizes, ANOVA is statistically more powerful than the t-test when comparing two groups.
In a single-factor ANOVA, two or more independent group means of one independent variable are compared. For example, a study of leg amputees might look at the effect of using different types of assistance devices on stride length. The average stride length for each of three groups (one using canes, one using crutches, and a control group using no devices) is compared to determine whether there is significant variation among the group means.
Suppose you want to examine the simultaneous effects of two or more independent variables, such as gender (male/female) and age group (< 40, 40). In a two-factor design, the effect of each independent variable can be examined separately, essentially creating two single-factor experiments. These effects are called main effects. The factorial experiment has the advantage (over single factor tests) of being able to look at combinations of levels of each independent variable. These effects are called interaction effects. Interaction effects occur when the effects of one variable are not constant across levels of different levels of a second variable.
To illustrate main and interaction effects, let's say a single-factor study of depression found that two drugs were equally effective in treating depression. Suppose a two-factor study was performed on the same data, which also compared males vs. females, and found no differences between either drug types or gender, i.e., no main effects. However, the first drug was superior for females while the second drug was superior for males, i.e., an interaction effect of drug type and gender was found. As you can see, if the two drugs had only been compared in a one-factor ANOVA, without also classifying the subjects according to gender using the two-factor ANOVA, this important finding would have been missed. It is important to note, however, that if your study was designed to test this interaction effect, the main effects are of little importance. On the other hand, if your a priori hypotheses were designed only to look at the main effects, you would not compute the interaction.
ANOVA can also be used in a repeated-measures design to evaluate the performance of each subject under two or more treatment conditions. This and other ANOVA techniques will be discussed in future COMquest issues.
If you have any questions related to ANOVA or other statistics, please contact John Dooley (330-468-4500 ext. 224 or dooley@ohiou.edu) or Al Pheley (740-593-2411 or pheley@ohiou.edu).
Contact Judi Rioch at 740-593-2336 or rioch@ohiou.edu for details
Grant awards for research in the area of gerontology
Deadline: June 1, 1999
Amount: $2,000
Support research on studies relevant to diabetes
Innovative Grants
Deadline: June 15, 1999
Amount: $50,000 per year for two years
Special Research
Deadline: August 15, 1999
Amount: $100,000 per year for two years
17th Annual Research Day
April 24, 1999
8:00 AM-2:30 PM
Holiday Inn Conference Center
Fairborn, Ohio
call OAFP at 800-742-7327 for details
