[Federal Register: February 21, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 35)]
[Notices]
[Page 8509-8513]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr21fe03-34]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[Program Announcement 03035]
Grants for National Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth
Violence Prevention; Notice of Availability of Funds for Fiscal Year
2003
A. Authority and Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number
This program is authorized under sections 301, 391, 392, and 394 of
the Public Health Service Act, [42 U.S.C. 241, 280b, 280b-1, 280b-1a,
and 280b-2], as amended. Program regulations are set forth in 42 CFR
part 52. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number is 93.136.
B. Purpose
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the
availability of fiscal year (FY) 2003 funds for a grant for National
Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention. This
program addresses the ``Healthy People 2010'' focus area related to
Injury and Violence Prevention.
The purposes of the program are to: (1) Build the scientific
infrastructure necessary to support the development and widespread
application of effective youth violence interventions; (2) promote
interdisciplinary research strategies to address the problem of youth
violence; (3) foster collaboration between academic researchers and
communities; and (4) empower communities to address the problem of
youth violence.
Measurable outcomes of the program will be in alignment with the
following performance goal for the National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control (NCIPC): Increase the capacity of injury
prevention and control programs to address the prevention of injuries
and violence.
C. Eligible Applicants
Assistance will be limited to the following academic health
centers, defined as public and private nonprofit universities,
colleges, and university-associated teaching hospitals: Virginia
[[Page 8510]]
Commonwealth University; University of Michigan; University of Puerto
Rico; University of California, Riverside; and University of
California, San Diego. Only current recipients of Program Announcement
00043, National Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth Violence
Prevention, are eligible to apply. The competition is limited to
complete the development, collection and analysis of data from core
program components in surveillance, intervention research, etiological
research, multi-disciplinary collaboration, community mobilization, and
training funding established during the first three years for the
developing centers.
Note: Title 2 of the United States Code section 1611 states that
an organization described in section 501c(4) of the Internal Revenue
Code that engages in lobbying activities is not eligible to receive
Federal funds constituting an award, grant, or loan.
D. Funding
Availability of Funds
Approximately $1,900,000 is available in FY 2003 to fund
approximately five awards. It is expected that the average award will
be $380,000, ranging from $376,000 to $393,000 (including direct or
indirect costs). It is expected that the awards will begin on or about
September 1, 2003, and will be made for a 12-month budget period within
a project period of up to two years. Funding estimates may change.
Continuation awards within an approved project period will be made
on the basis of the availability of funds and the following criteria:
(1) The accomplishments reflected in the progress report of the
continuation application indicate that the applicant is meeting
previously stated objectives or milestones contained in the project's
annual statement of work. Progress is demonstrated through
presentations at monitoring workshops.
(2) The objectives for the new budget period are realistic,
specific, and measurable.
(3) The methods described will clearly lead to achievement of these
objectives.
(4) The evaluation plan will allow management to monitor whether
the methods are effective.
Use of Funds
Provide a budget to include funds for management functions, non-
research activities, and small one-year pilot projects of less than
$15,000. The budget should include items for development and
implementation of a community response plan for youth violence, and
development and implementation of curricula for training of health
professionals.
Recipient Financial Participation
Matching funds are not required for this program.
Funding Priority
Funding priority will be given to current recipients of Program
Announcement 00043, National Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth
Violence Prevention. The competition is limited to complete the
development, collection and analysis of data from core program
components in surveillance, intervention research, etiological
research, multi-disciplinary collaboration, community mobilization, and
training funding established during the first three years for the
developing centers.
Interested persons are invited to comment on the proposed funding
priority. All comments received within 30 days after publication in the
Federal Register will be considered before the final funding priority
is established. If the funding priority changes because of comments
received, a revised announcement will be published in the Federal
Register, and revised applications will be accepted before the final
selections are made. Send comments to the Grants Management Specialist
identified in the ``Where to Obtain Additional Information'' section of
this announcement.
E. Program Requirements
In conducting activities to achieve the purpose of this program,
the recipient will be responsible for the following activities:
(1) Demonstrated expertise in:
(a) Research in risk and protective factors for youth violence and/
or development and evaluation of preventive interventions for youth
violence.
(b) Capacity to develop and facilitate implementation of a multi-
disciplinary and multi-organizational community response plan for youth
violence.
(2) Provide evidence of capacity to develop, deliver, and maintain
a training curriculum for health care professionals.
(3) Provide a director (Principal Investigator) who has specific
authority and responsibility to carry out the project. The director
must report to an appropriate institutional official, e.g., dean of a
school or vice president of a university. The director must have no
less than 30 percent effort devoted solely to this project.
(4) Demonstrate working relationships with outside agencies and
other entities which will allow for implementation of any proposed
intervention activities.
(5) Provide evidence of involvement of a multi-disciplinary and
multi-organizational group of specialists or experts in primary care,
behavioral and/or preventive medicine, epidemiology, law and criminal
justice, behavioral and social sciences, and/or public health as needed
to complete the plans of the center.
(6) Demonstrate through documentation that full working partners
must have established curricula and graduate training programs in
disciplines relevant to youth violence prevention (e.g., epidemiology,
criminology, social sciences, and behavioral sciences).
(7) Demonstrate an established relationship with youth violence
prevention programs through letters of commitment. Also include
established relationships with organizations/individual leaders in
communities where youth violence related injuries occur at high rates.
A letter from an appropriate public health agency in support of the
proposed center is required.
F. Content
Letter of Intent (LOI)
An LOI is not required for this program.
Applications
The Program Announcement title and number must appear in the
application. Use the information in the Program Requirements, Other
Requirements, and Evaluation Criteria sections to develop the
application content. Your application will be evaluated on the criteria
listed, so it is important to follow them in laying out your program
plan. The narrative should be no more than 50 pages, double spaced,
printed on one side, with one inch margins, and unreduced 12-point
font.
The narrative should consist of, at a minimum, a Plan, Objectives,
Methods, Evaluation and Budget. The plan should:
(1) Provide the infrastructure for, and conduct interdisciplinary
research relevant to, youth violence.
(2) Support the surveillance of youth violence in the grantees'
specific communities.
(3) Develop, evaluate, and more broadly implement effective
violence prevention strategies.
(4) Offer mentoring and training initiatives to prepare
professionals from various backgrounds to address the issue of youth
violence.
[[Page 8511]]
(5) Create partnerships with communities to develop plans to
address youth violence.
G. Submission and Deadline
Application Forms
Submit the original and two copies of PHS 398 (OMB Number 0925-
0001) and adhere to the instructions on the Errata Instruction Sheet
for PHS 398. Forms are available at the following Internet address:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/forminfo.htm.
If you do not have access to the Internet, or if you have
difficulty accessing the forms on-line, you may contact the CDC
Procurement and Grants Office Technical Information Management Section
(PGO-TIM) at: (770) 488-2700. Application forms can be mailed to you.
Submission Date, Time, and Address
The application must be received by 4 p.m. Eastern Time, April 7,
2003. Submit the application to: Technical Information Management--
PA03035, CDC Procurement and Grants Office, 2920 Brandywine
Road, Atlanta, GA 30341-4146.
Applications may not be submitted electronically.
CDC Acknowledgement of Application Receipt
A post card will be mailed by PGO-TIM, notifying you that CDC has
received your application.
Deadline
Applications shall be considered as meeting the deadline if they
are received before 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the deadline date.
Applicants sending applications by the United States Postal Service or
commercial delivery services must ensure that the carrier will be able
to guarantee delivery of the application by the closing date and time.
If an application is received after closing due to (1) carrier error,
when the carrier accepted the package with a guarantee for delivery by
the closing date and time, or (2) significant weather delays or natural
disasters, CDC will upon receipt of proper documentation, consider the
application as having been received by the deadline.
Applications that do not meet the above criteria will not be
eligible for competition and will be discarded. The applicant will be
notified of their failure to meet the submission requirements.
H. Evaluation Criteria
Application
Applicants are required to provide measures of effectiveness that
will demonstrate the accomplishment of the various identified
objectives of the grant. Measures of effectiveness must relate to the
performance goal stated in the purpose section of this announcement.
Measures must be objective and quantitative and must measure the
intended outcome. These measures of effectiveness must be submitted
with the application and will be an element of evaluation.
Applications will be reviewed by CDC staff for completeness and
responsiveness as outlined under the eligible applicants section.
Incomplete applications and applications that are not responsive will
be returned to the applicant without further consideration.
Applications which are complete and responsive may be subjected to
a preliminary evaluation (streamlined review) by a peer review
committee, the Injury Research Grant Review Committee (IRGRC), to
determine if the application is of sufficient technical and scientific
merit to warrant further review by the IRGRC. CDC will withdraw from
further consideration applications judged to be noncompetitive and
promptly notify the principal investigator/program director and the
official signing for the applicant organization. Those applications
judged to be competitive will be further evaluated by a dual review
process.
All awards will be determined by the director of the NCIPC based on
priority scores assigned to applications by the IRGRC, recommendations
by the secondary review committee of the Science and Program Review
Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Injury Prevention and
Control (ACIPC), consultation with NCIPC senior staff, and the
availability of funds.
1. The primary review will be a peer review conducted by the IRGRC.
All applications will be reviewed for scientific merit using current
National Institutes of Health (NIH) and CDC criteria (a scoring system
of 100 to 500 points) to evaluate the methods and scientific quality of
the application. Factors to be considered will include:
a. Plan for the development of infrastructure and conduct of
interdisciplinary research relevant to youth violence (25 percent).
(1) The application will specifically aim to address all the goals
of the program, for example, the long-term objectives and intended
accomplishments for the proposed center in relation to the problem of
preventing youth violence and self-directed violence among the young.
If the aims of the application are achieved, how will prevention of
youth violence be advanced? What will be the effect of the center's
activities on violence prevention efforts within the center's target
community or region (e.g., surveillance)?
(2) The extent to which the evaluation plan will allow for the
measurement of progress toward the achievement of stated objectives of
the proposed center.
(3) Qualifications, adequacy, and appropriateness of personnel to
accomplish the proposed activities. Project director: Is the proposed
center director appropriately trained and well-suited to carry out this
work? Is the work proposed appropriate to the experience level of the
proposed director and other key faculty and staff?
(4) Adequacy of institutional support and arrangements to ensure
successful implementation of activities of the proposed centers,
including arrangements for the center director's time commitment and
authority, and documentation of relationships and understanding of
roles and responsibilities between partner institutions and community
organizations.
b. Implement effective violence prevention strategies (20 percent).
Adequacy of plans to conduct pilot projects relevant to the field
of violence prevention including: adequacy of the setting and
participants for the project, relevance of outcome measurements,
expected results, and appropriateness of time lines, cost, and plans
for translation/dissemination.
c. Create partnerships with communities to develop plans to address
youth violence (20 percent).
Adequacy of plans and arrangements to develop and implement a
community response to the problem of youth violence. Incorporate
diverse perspectives (i.e., health and mental health professionals,
educators, the media, parents, young people, police, criminal/juvenile
courts, legislators, public health specialists, and business leaders).
Documentation of agreements and clear understanding of roles and
responsibilities of partner organizations.
d. Training initiatives to prepare professionals from various
backgrounds to address the issue of youth violence (20 percent).
Adequacy of plans and arrangements to develop and implement
curricula for training of health care professionals on violent behavior
identification, assessment, intervention with high risk youth.
Integrate this curriculum into medical, nursing, and other health
professional training program.
e. Research Factors (15 percent).
(1) Significance. Does this study address an important problem? If
the
[[Page 8512]]
aims of the application are achieved, how will scientific knowledge be
advanced? What will be the effect of these studies on the concepts or
methods that drive this field?
(2) Approach. Are the conceptual framework, design, methods, and
analyses adequately developed, well-integrated, and appropriate to the
aims of the project? Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem
areas and consider alternative tactics? Does the project include plans
to measure progress toward achieving the stated objectives? Is there an
appropriate work plan included?
(3) Innovation. Does the project employ novel concepts, approaches,
or methods? Are the aims original and innovative? Does the project
challenge or advance existing paradigms, or develop new methodologies
or technologies?
(4) Investigator. Is the principal investigator appropriately
trained and well-suited to carry out this work? Is the proposed work
appropriate to the experience level of the principal investigator and
other significant investigator participants? Is there a prior history
of conducting injury-related research?
(5) Environment. Does the scientific environment in which the work
will be done contribute to the probability of success? Does the
proposed research take advantage of unique features of the scientific
environment or employ useful collaborative arrangements? Is there
evidence of institutional support? Is there an appropriate degree of
commitment and cooperation of other interested parties as evidenced by
letters detailing the nature and extent of the involvement?
(6) Study Samples. Are the samples sufficiently rigorously defined
to permit complete independent replication at another site? Have the
referral sources been described, including the definitions and
criteria? What plans have been made to include women and minorities and
their subgroups as appropriate for the scientific goals of the
research? How will the applicant deal with recruitment and retention of
subjects?
(7) Dissemination. What plans have been articulated for
disseminating findings?
(8) Measures of Effectiveness. The Peer Review Panel shall assure
that measures set forth in the application are in accordance with CDC's
performance plans. How adequately has the applicant addressed these
measures?
f. Budget and justification (reviewed, but not scored). The extent
to which the proposal demonstrates appropriateness and justification of
the requested budget relative to the activities proposed.
g. Performance Goal (reviewed, but not scored). The application
must be aligned with the following performance goal for the National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control: Increase the capacity of
injury prevention and control programs to address the prevention of
injuries and violence.
h. Human Subjects Protection (reviewed, but not scored). Does the
application adequately address the requirements of Title 45 CFR part 46
for the protection of human subjects? Not scored; however, an
application can be disapproved if the research risks are sufficiently
serious and protection against risks is so inadequate as to make the
entire application unacceptable.
i. Does the application adequately address the CDC Policy
requirements regarding the inclusion of women, ethnic, and racial
groups in the proposed research? (reviewed, but not scored). This
includes:
(1) The proposed plan for the inclusion of both sexes and racial
and ethnic minority populations for appropriate representation.
(2) The proposed justification where representation is limited or
absent.
(3) A statement as to whether the design of the study is adequate
to measure differences when warranted.
(4) A statement as to whether the plans for recruitment and
outreach for study participants include the process of establishing
partnerships with community(ies) and recognition of mutual benefits.
2. The secondary review will be conducted by the Science and
Program Review Subcommittee (SPRS) of the ACIPC. The ACIPC federal
agency experts will be invited to attend the secondary review and will
receive modified briefing books (i.e., abstracts, strengths and
weaknesses from summary statements, and project officer's briefing
materials). ACIPC federal agency experts will be encouraged to
participate in deliberations when applications address overlapping
areas of research interest, so that unwarranted duplication in
federally-funded research can be avoided and special subject area
expertise can be shared. The NCIPC Division Associate Directors for
Science (ADS) or their designees will attend the secondary review in a
similar capacity as the ACIPC federal agency experts to assure that
research priorities of the announcement are understood and to provide
background regarding current research activities. Only SPRS members
will vote on funding recommendations, and their recommendations will be
carried to the entire ACIPC for voting by the ACIPC members in closed
session. If any further review is needed by the ACIPC, regarding the
recommendations of the SPRS, the factors considered will be the same as
those considered by the SPRS.
The committee's responsibility is to develop funding
recommendations for the NCIPC Director based on the results of the
primary review, the relevance and balance of proposed research relative
to the NCIPC programs and priorities, and to assure that unwarranted
duplication of federally-funded research does not occur. The secondary
review committee has the latitude to recommend to the NCIPC Director,
to reach over better ranked proposals in order to assure maximal impact
and balance of proposed research. The factors to be considered will
include:
a. The results of the primary review including the application's
priority score as the primary factor in the selection process.
b. The relevance and balance of proposed research relative to the
NCIPC programs and priorities.
c. The significance of the proposed activities in relation to the
priorities and objectives stated in ``Healthy People 2010,'' the
Institute of Medicine report, ``Reducing the Burden of Injury,'' and
the ``CDC Injury Research Agenda.''
d. Budgetary considerations.
I. Other Requirements
Technical Reporting Requirements
Provide CDC with original plus two copies of:
1. Annual progress reports including a data requirement that
demonstrates measures of effectiveness.
2. Financial status report, no more than 90 days after the end of
each budget period.
3. Final financial and performance reports, no more than 90 days
after the end of the project period.
4. At the completion of the project, the grant recipient will
submit a brief summary, 2,500 to 4,000 words written in non-scientific
[laymen's] terms, highlighting the findings and their implications for
injury prevention programs, policies, environmental changes, etc. The
grant recipient will also include a description of the dissemination
plan for research findings. This plan will include publications in
peer-reviewed journals and ways in which research findings will be made
available to stakeholders outside of academia (e.g., state injury
prevention program staff, community groups, public health injury
prevention practitioners, and others). CDC will
[[Page 8513]]
place the summary report and each grant recipient's final report with
the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) to further the
agency's efforts to make the information more available and accessible
to the public.
Send all reports to the Grants Management Specialist identified in
the ``Where to Obtain Additional Information'' section of this
announcement.
Additional Requirements
The following additional requirements are applicable to this
program. For a complete description of each, see Attachment I of the
program announcement, as posted on the CDC Web site.
AR-1 Human Subjects Requirements.
AR-2 Requirements for Inclusion of Women and Racial and Ethnic
Minorities in Research.
AR-9 Paperwork Reduction Act Requirements.
AR-10 Smoke-Free Workplace Requirement.
AR-11 Healthy People 2010.
AR-12 Lobbying Restrictions.
AR-13 Prohibition on Use of CDC Funds for Certain Gun Control
Activities.
AR-20 Conference Support.
Executive Order 12372 does not apply to this program.
J. Where To Obtain Additional Information
This and other CDC announcements, the necessary applications, and
associated forms can be found on the CDC Web site, Internet address:
http://www.cdc.gov.
Click on ``Funding'' then ``Grants and Cooperative Agreements.''
For general questions about this announcement, contact: Technical
Information Management, CDC Procurement and Grants Office, 2920
Brandywine Rd., Atlanta, GA 30341-4146, Telephone: (770) 488-2700.
For business management and budget assistance, contact: Nancy
Pillar, Grants Management Specialist, Procurement and Grants Office,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2920 Brandywine Road, Room
3000, Atlanta, GA 30341-4146, Telephone: (770) 488-2721, E-mail
address: NPillar@cdc.gov.
For program technical assistance, contact: Candice Jackson, Project
Officer, Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
4770 Buford Highway, NE, MS K60, Atlanta, GA 30341-3724, Telephone:
(770) 488-1571, E-mail address: CJackson@cdc.gov.
Dated: February 13, 2003.
Sandra R. Manning,
CGFM Director, Procurement and Grants Office, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-4061 Filed 2-20-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P