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NIH Challenge Awards in Health
and Science Research

10-TW-101* Innovative information and communication technologies to enhance capabilities of U.S. institutions in global health research and research training

Develop culturally adaptive, interoperable data management, long distance communication, and distance learning applications that can enhance productivity and quality of active U.S.-international research and research training collaborations.

Purpose:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can greatly facilitate research, communication, and research training within and among global health research networks involving international partnerships. Technological solutions in each of these areas, however, must be appropriate to local ICT infrastructure, responsive to local cultural norms and language, adaptable to local needs, and flexible enough to accommodate future needs of the international teams while remaining interoperable and allowing sharing of data and expertise. Innovation in this context might involve the design of new platforms or the creative adaptation of existing technologies to meet specific needs of the research collaboration. For the purposes of this solicitation, technological solutions should address the needs of U.S. research collaborations involving at least one institution in a low- or middle-income country (the “network”) and be supported by an active research or research training award from the NIH. The focus of this solicitation is biomedical, behavioral/social, and implementation research and research training and not health care delivery. However, it is recognized that platforms developed for research purposes may benefit both areas.

Priority topics:

Applicants may propose a suite of interacting solutions that address research, communication, and/or educational needs of the research collaboration. Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

• Design or adapt, test, and implement innovative ICT solutions to data collection, sharing, and analysis at distributed sites within the research network. Solutions may involve mobile as well as stationary devices, as appropriate to the needs of the project. We encourage the development or use of open source platforms that would allow individual modifications while retaining interoperability. Informatics solutions may address management and sharing of data in any format, including images. All proposals should include plans for evaluation of the effectiveness of the introduced technology.



• Design or adapt, test, and implement innovative ICT solutions to communication needs among a distributed research network. These may include routine communication and data sharing among the investigators in the team such as use of web collaboratory tools, video conferencing, establishment of a virtual global seminar series, and access to professional materials. Alternatively, this may involve communication with research subjects as part of a research project.



• Design, test, and implement innovative, multidisciplinary educational approaches using ICT to train new researchers at all participating institutions in scientific fields relevant to the research collaboration. This may include the creation and sharing of curricula and case studies to prepare students to address global health research challenges or training in analysis or modeling using data from proprietary and publicly available databases. In addition, for global public health, faculty and students from the U.S. and partner countries may benefit from learning directly from each other. Proposals may include the design or innovative use of ICT technology to create and share educational materials and opportunities, including distance learning. The creation or use of open educational resources is permissible but the proposal should include a discussion of potential barriers in the international context and plans to pilot use of the material. Plans for evaluation of the effectiveness of the technological and/or pedagogical solutions should be described.

Applicants should reference and briefly describe the research or research training project the ICT intervention will support and justify how the ICT development will facilitate, expand, or transform the research and/or training program. Discuss potential barriers to implementation, adoption, effectiveness, maintenance and sustainability of the ICT intervention and how these will be addressed.

Contact:

Flora Katz, Ph.D.
Program Officer
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Building 31, B2C39
31 Center Drive MSC 2220
Bethesda, MD 20892-2220
Telephone: (301) 402-9591
FAX: (301) 402-0779
katzf@mail.nih.gov

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