The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for a national coordinating center (CC) for the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMIs) initiative. NIH established the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program in 1985 in response to Congressional interest to provide support to less research-intensive institutions that offer doctorate degrees in the health professions or in a health-related science.

The RCMI Specialized Center awards enhance institutional research capacity to conduct world-class health research, enable investigators to compete successfully for extramural support, facilitate research career development and enhancement for post-doctoral fellows and early-stage investigators, provide the tools needed to conduct health disparities, and establish partnerships with community-based organizations.

The RCMI Coordinating Center (CC) will serve as a national resource to help RCMI U54 centers and the Clinical Research Network (CRN) achieve their primary goals. The RCMI CC will conduct prospective evaluations of the overall RCMI program and establish common metrics to measure effectiveness of the program, including analyses of data from the awarded RCMI centers and generating regular reports. The CC will also support the sharing of scientific expertise and best practices, leveraging research resources, and scientific dissemination across RCMI sites. It will also provide support to the RCMI-CRN for study development and implementation, the centralization of operations, as well as data management and statistical analyses.

Applications are not being solicited at this time. Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.

In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in multiple scientific disciplines in basic, behavioral to clinical research will be encouraged. 

Education

• Private institutions of higher education
• Public and state institutions of higher education