Updates on activities at the National Institute on Aging and by the FONIA coalition
To kick off the new year, the InsideNIA blog featured a video post by NIA Director, Dr. Richard Hodes. In the video, Dr. Hodes recaps recent NIA progress and offers details on what’s ahead in 2019. Among topics described are the FY2019 NIA budget, pay lines, upcoming events, funding opportunities, and NIA research priorities.
The NIA released an informational video about the Institute’s mission, history, and research that has led to important scientific discoveries about healthy aging. The video can be found on the NIA’s YouTube channel and via the NIA website . Narrated by Dr. Richard Hodes, NIA’s Director, the piece combines photos, animation, video clips, illustrations, and other dynamic elements to convey the history and work of the Institute. Please feel free to share the link to this video with anyone that you think would be interested in learning more about the nation’s lead agency on aging research!
In this week’s NIA Blog, Dr. Robin Barr, Director, Division of Extramural Activities, writes about the impact of the 5% increase in general appropriations to the NIA. Read more here. You can see all of these numbers in a table. The Alzheimer’s and related dementias funding lines have not changed from the May posting.
The NIA launched the Improving Care for People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Using Technology (iCare-AD/ADRD) Challenge. This Eureka prize competition seeks to spur the development of technology applications to improve dementia care coordination and/or care navigation, as part of the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act. Up to $400,000 in cash prizes may be awarded to teams or individuals that participate in the challenge. Entries will be accepted from October 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019.
The iCare-AD/ADRD challenge managers will be hosting a webinar on October 17, 2018 at 2:30 PM EDT. This webinar will introduce attendees to the Challenge and cover participation requirements. Time will be allotted to answer questions from attendees. To register for the webinar please visit: https://bit.ly/2MhGc7w.
Please share this announcement broadly; NIA is interested in receiving applications from all relevant sectors. The NIA is excited to see what types of innovations will be sparked from this competition!
Dr. Francis Collins testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). The hearing focused on Prioritizing Cures: Science and Stewardship at the National Institutes of Health – you can view the videocast at this link. In addition to Dr. Collins, several NIH Institute Directors also attended to respond to questions, including our own director, Dr. Richard Hodes, and Drs. Ned Sharpless from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Anthony Fauci from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Diana Bianchi from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
You can read Dr. Collins’ testimony here: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/testimony-prioritizing-cures-science-stewardship-national-institutes-health.
If you view the hearing, you will see that Dr. Collins also made a brief statement about foreign influence on biomedical research; an official statement on this topic can be found here: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/statement-protecting-integrity-us-biomedical-research.