Videos

The Transformative Research Award is part of the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research program and supports groundbreaking, unconventional research with the potential to overturn or create new scientific paradigms.

On April 27, 2021, the NIH Common Fund hosted a pre-application webinar for the Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative’s funding opportunities (RFA-RM-21-021 and RFA-RM-21-022). NIH program, grants management, and review staff discussed the overall scope and intent of these funding opportunities, the review process, and the use of the cooperative agreement (U01) mechanism. NIH staff also answered questions submitted by participants. The Common Fund’s Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative is part of NIH’s UNITE, an effort aimed to address structural racism and promote racial equity and inclusion at NIH and within the larger biomedical research enterprise.

Please find more information on our website: https://commonfund.nih.gov/healthdisparitiestransformation/grants

Please find the audio described version of this video here: https://youtu.be/LHyMiRIlIRQ

The Early Independence Award is part of the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research program and enables outstanding junior scientists to skip the traditional postdoctoral training period to launch independent research careers.

Dr. Gene Civillico, program manager for the NIH Common Fund’s Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program, presents the concept clearance for stage two of the SPARC program at the January 29, 2021 virtual Council of Councils meeting.

Maternal and child health outcomes in Africa still lag behind the rest of the world despite prioritization as a topic of focus within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Partners from country-level governments, research institutions, private sector program funding agencies and non-governmental organizations are involved in various capacities and across disciplines, implementing activities to reduce the enormous burden of high mortality and morbidity of women and children on the African continent. Nonetheless, millions of women and children experience death and severe morbidity each year despite these efforts. In this session we will 1) address the gap in availability of existing databases and collective data focused on pregnancy and the peripartum period; 2) explore emerging use of linked data such as electronic medical records as a tool for conducting research, analyzing data and creating tools for interventions; and 3) develop concrete recommendations for a strategy to utilize data science to improve maternal and child health outcomes from pre-pregnancy to pregnancy and delivery and throughout the mother and child’s life course.

Introductions:
- Vesna Kutlesic, Ph.D., Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Naveen Rao, M.D., Senior Vice President & Senior Advisor to the President, Health Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation
- Diana Bianchi, M.D., Director, NICHD, NIH

Moderators:
- Denise Russo, Ph.D., NICHD, NIH
- Marion koso-Thomas, M.D., MPH, NICHD, NIH

Panelists:
- Andre van der Kouwe, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Physics, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Lilla Zöllei, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
- Moses Alobo, M.D., Program Manager, Grand Challenges Africa Programme at African Academy of Sciences
- Alash’le Abimiku, Ph.D., Professor in Epidemiology & Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Executive Director, International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria
- Amel Ghouila, Ph.D., Vice President, African Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB); Founder, Technovation Tunisia

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

This session highlights the emerging field of health metrics sciences and its role in measuring and monitoring summary measures of health in Africa to better develop and implement measures to reduce the burden of disease. Identify challenges and opportunities relevant to the DS-I Africa initiatives. Address the increasing role that health metrics is playing in informing and prioritizing systems-level health interventions and broad public health-related decision making. Discuss how health metrics and data science can inform and evaluate more effective integrated care efforts at the intersection of infectious diseases and the rapidly growing burden of chronic, non-communicable diseases.

Moderator:
- George A. Mensah, MD, FACC, Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, NHLBI, NIH
- Makeda Williams, PhD, MPH, Global Health Program Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, NHLBI, NIH

Panelists:
- Mayowa Owolabi, MBBS, MSc, DrM, Professor of Neurology and Director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine; Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan
- Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, and Institute for Health Metrics, University of Washington
- Ana H Mocumbi, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Researcher and Head, Chronic & Non-Communicable Diseases Division, Ministry of Health, National Health Institute & Eduardo Mondlane University
- Ali H. Mokdad, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Chief Strategy Officer, Population Health, University of Washington

The SPARC Plug vlog’s SPARC Portal Tutorials video series introduces you to the SPARC Portal resources available for advancing bioelectronic medicine through open science. In our first video, take a tour of the SPARC Portal website and learn about the information and tools available to help accelerate development of therapeutic devices that modulate electrical activity in nerves to improve organ function. These resources could potentially be used to help improve treatment of diseases and conditions such as hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, type II diabetes, and more.

The SPARC program is a trans-NIH effort managed by the NIH Common Fund in the Office of the Director and supported by NIBIB, NINDS, NIDDK, and NCATS. Learn more about the NIH SPARC program at https://go.usa.gov/xyFmQ and by following SPARC on Twitter @sparc_science, #NIH_SPARC, and #SPARCportal.

This webinar discusses the COVID-19 situation in Africa and presents application examples of Data Science for disease management. A panel of experts touches on topics such as disease surveillance, generating dashboards with the latest statistics, and mining of text or social media to discover trends. Other topics include data-interoperability, publication tracking, disease burden and mortality, and the effect of COVID-19 on diseases like HIV and malaria.

Moderators:
- Stefan Jaeger, Ph.D., National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
- Cecile Viboud, Ph.D., Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health

Panelists:
- Agnes Kiragga, Ph.D., Head of Statistics and Data Management Unit and Senior Research Scientist, Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Makerere University College of Health Sciences
- Nirmal Ravi, MD, Ph.D., Director for Medical and Scientific Affairs, E-Health Africa, and Chief Innovation Officer, EHA Clinics
- Ali H. Mokdad, Ph.D., Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Chief Strategy Officer, Population Health at the University of Washington
- Elaine Nsoesie, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health
- Frank Kagoro, M.D., MSc, Research Physician, MORU Tropical Health Network and WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town

As part of the DS-I Africa Symposium, this session addressed emerging opportunities and challenges in the application of Data Science and Informatics technologies in various biomedical domains. It also highlighted some key challenges in the areas of data mining, data quality, standards for various types of data, in addition to addressing how cutting-edge data analytics, predictive modeling and Machine Learning, and methods for simulations can advance human health in Africa.

Moderator:

Darrell Hurt, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Geetha Senthil, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH 
Panelists:

Abdoulaye Banire Diallo, University of Quebec-Montreal (UQAM) 
Elaine Nsoesie, Boston University 
Geoffrey Siwo, University of Notre Dame 
Dina Machuve, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology 
Moustapha Cisse, Google AI

Environmental Health challenges in Africa are complex, involving a broad range of exposures, including ambient and indoor air pollution, electronic waste, heavy metals, pesticides, vector-borne pathogens, and climate change, and a large proportion of the disease burden in Africa is linked to environmental factors. As part of the DS-I Africa State of Data Science series, this session explored unique aspects and analytic challenges of the various types of environmental health data and will highlight recent data science approaches to characterizing hazardous exposures on the African continent, connecting environmental exposures to health outcomes, and reducing the risk of disease connected to the environment.

Moderator:
Gwen Collman, Acting Deputy Director, Associate Director for Extramural Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Panelists:

Kiros Berhane, Professor and Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Caradee Wright, Senior Specialist Scientist, Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council
Engineer Bainomugisha, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing & IT, Makerere University

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

As part of the DS-I Africa State of Data Science series, this session focused on opportunities and challenges at the intersection of biomedical imaging (including microscopy, diagnostic and interventional radiology, and digital pathology) and data science. The session both considered new and emerging imaging modalities as well as computer-aided diagnosis and treatment planning tools and emerging AI/machine learning approaches to image analysis.

Hear advice from researchers who have served as reviewers on peer review panels.

Presenter: Venkat Narayan, Professor, Emory University

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

Learn about the role of grant management specialist at NIH and hear advice regarding the policy and budget aspects of NIH applications.

Presenter:
Satabdi Raychowdhury, Grant Management Officer, Fogarty International Center, NIH Mollie Shea, Grant Management Officer, Fogarty International Center, NIH

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

Watch a live demo of the electronic application process through the Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking (ASSIST) system.

Presenter: Laurie Roman, Customer Service Manager for eSubmissions, ASSIST & CRIMS electronic Research Administration, Office of Extramural Research, NIH.

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

Hear advice from researchers who have successfully applied for and received NIH funding.

Presenter:
Rajesh Vedanthan, Associate Professor, New York University Langone Shivani Patel, Assistant Professor, Emory University

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...