Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues (ELSI) Collaborative Centers (U54)

Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues (ELSI) Collaborative Centers (U54) is sponsored by NIH. The NIH solicits applications from foreign institutions in African countries to develop the study of genomic/genetic/environmental contributors of human health and disease within Africa to understand health and diseases affecting African populations.

Expired RFA-RM-11-008: Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Collaborative Centers (U54) This notice has expired. Check the NIH Guide for active opportunities and notices. Part 1.

Overview Information Participating Organization(s) National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) Components of Participating This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is developed as a Common Fund initiative ( http://commonfund. nih. gov/ ) through the NIH Office of the NIH Director, Office of Strategic Coordination ( http://dpcpsi.

nih. gov/osc/ ). The FOA will be administered by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI/NIH), ( http://genome.

gov ) on behalf of Participating Institutes: National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI ) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( NICHD ) National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA ) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke ( NINDS ) Office of AIDs Research ( OAR ) Fogarty International Center ( FIC ) Office of Strategic Coordination ( Common Funding Opportunity Title Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Collaborative Centers (U54) U54 Specialized Center- Cooperative Agreements August 22, 2012 - This RFA has been reissued as RFA-RM-12-006.

June 13, 2012 - See Issuance of RFA-RM-12-005: Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues (ELSI) Research Program (U01). May 25, 2012 - See Notice NOT-RM-12-024. Notice of Intent to Publish Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Collaborative Centers FOA.

November 16, 2011 - See Notice NOT-RM-12-006. Notice of Total Costs allowed. October 14, 2011 - See Notice NOT-RM-12-002.

The purpose of this Notice is to revise the wording of the following passages; Section IV, 2. Page Limitations, Section IV, 2. Administration and Management, Section IV, 2.

Under Collaborations and Section I, Part 2. October 14, 2011 - See Notice NOT-RM-12-004. The purpose of this Notice is to provide additional information to those applicants who plan to include an advisory committee.

September 14, 2011 - See Companion RFA-RM-11-011, Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): H3Africa Biorepository Grants(UH2/UH3). Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Research Grants ( U01 ) Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Bioinformatics Network ( U41 ) Additional Information on Eligibility .

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s) This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), supported by funds from the NIH Common Fund ( Common Fund ) and participating NIH Institute(s) and Center(s) , invites applications from foreign Institutions in African countries who wish to develop the study of genomic/genetic/environmental contributors of human health and disease within Africa, using cutting edge research tools to understand health and diseases affecting African populations more completely and increase capacity for biomedical research, in terms of building infrastructure (including data and research resources), genomic proficiency of researchers and numbers of trainees.

In partnership with the Wellcome Trust, the H3Africa initiative is focused on supporting these efforts as part of an effort to promote sustainable research in Africa that will promote health and combat disease. The purpose of this FOA is to call for applications for research centers called H3Africa Collaborative Centers.

Awards will focus on supporting research on the genetic/environmental contributors to health and disease in Africa that fall within the mission of the NIH, which is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and to apply that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.

Letter of Intent Due Date AIDS Application Due Date(s) Required Application Instructions It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in Application Guide except where instructed to do otherwise (in this FOA or in a Notice from the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts ). Conformance to all requirements (both in the Application Guide and the FOA) is required and strictly enforced.

While some links are provided, applicants must read and follow all application instructions in the Application Guide as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV . When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions. Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Looking ahead : NIH is committed to transitioning all grant programs to electronic submission using the SF424 Research and Related (R&R) format and is currently investigating solutions that will accommodate NIH’s multi-project programs. NIH will announce plans to transition the remaining programs in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts and on NIH’s Applying Part 1. Overview Information Part 2.

Full Text of Announcement Section I. Funding Opportunity Description Section II. Award Information Section III.

Eligibility Information Section IV. Application and Submission Section V. Application Review Information Section VI.

Award Administration Information Section VII. Agency Contacts Section VIII. Other Information I.

Funding Opportunity Description Low- and middle-income nations suffer over ninety percent of the world’s burden of premature mortality, as measured in lost years of life.

These countries, constituting three-quarters of the world’s population, now must deal with a triple burden: the persistent cluster of infectious diseases, malnutrition, and a growing incidence of chronic disease and disabilities due to increased life spans and new risk exposures that accompany it.

The NIH has a long-standing commitment to address both communicable and non-communicable diseases around the world through health research and training, and one of NIH’s stated priorities is enhancing efforts in global health.

Genomics and other large-scale biological studies provide cutting-edge approaches to research on the genetic and environmental contributors to health and disease, the understanding of which will lead to unimagined advances in medical science and powerful new ways for improving human health.

To maximize the impact on the health of people globally, advances in the fields of genetics/genomics/environmental studies must be integrated into the research conducted in developing countries, as well as into their medical education and health services. Notably, however, African researchers and populations are substantially underrepresented in genomics and environmental research endeavors.

For example, it has been found, as documented in a recent review, that, worldwide, the majority of the thousands of genetic studies completed to date (about 75%) were conducted exclusively in populations of European descent and only a fraction of the studies done with non-European populations came from Africa (Rosenberg NA, Huang L, et al. (2010). Nat Rev Genet 11(5):356-366).

The paradox of limited genomics research conducted in Africa and the centrality of contemporary African populations for our understanding of human evolution and population genetics has been widely While there are pockets of research excellence in genetics and environmental studies on the African continent done by African and other scientists, a limited number of individuals have the expertise to engage in this work compared to the overall population size and burden of disease there.

It is the objective of the H3Africa Initiative to enhance the capability of African scientists and research institutions to use genomics and other powerful new approaches to address problems of African health and disease.

Increasing African research capacity by building infrastructure, expanding the genomic proficiency of researchers, and increasing the number of well-trained individuals is essential to promote sustainable efforts to address the challenges to advancing health and combating disease in Africa.

While focused on benefitting the people of Africa, such research may also be relevant to the health of individuals in the U.S. and other countries worldwide, particularly those of African descent.

For example, many scientists believe that different environmental exposures for a population whose genetic architecture evolved in environments with a scarcity of available resources are an underlying contributor to disease in the U.S. H3Africa is a partnership among the National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA), the Wellcome Trust (WT, UK), and the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG).

A set of recommendations for H3Africa was developed by a pair of working groups, composed primarily of African scientific experts, who addressed the major scientific, ethical and practical issues in the development of a large-scale genomics research program in Africa. The working groups formulated a detailed proposal (which can be found in a white paper at www. h3africa.

org ) to address the goal of creating and sustaining a network of African Centers that could carry out training and research based on state-of-the-art genomics approaches.

Through support for infrastructure development, training, and specific research projects, the working group recommendations were designed to catalyze genomics and environmental research concerning human diversity, health, and disease biology of particular relevance and benefit to African populations and societies.

The proposal was discussed at a public meeting held in Cape Town, South Africa in March 2011 and the attendees ratified the white paper’s recommendations. The research program described in this FOA (and a similar call for proposals from the Wellcome Trust http://www. wellcome.

ac. uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/Funding-schemes/Strategic-awards-and-initiatives/wtvm052057. htm ) is a response to the disparities in research capacity noted above and is based, in significant part, on the recommendations of the H3Africa white paper and from discussions at the Cape Town meeting.

The H3Africa Initiative aims to contribute to the establishment of a viable, productive, and eventually sustainable, African research infrastructure to study the genetic and environmental contributors to disease and health.

It aims to do so through a combination of the leveraging of existing capacity, expertise and infrastructure with investment in new research, infrastructure-building and H3Africa has three interrelated, interdependent objectives. The first is to increase the human resources for conducting cutting-edge genomics-based research in Africa through training and enhanced collaborations within Africa and with the African scientific diaspora.

The second is to support cutting-edge research that will not only generate important findings and discoveries, but will serve as a vehicle for research training and for the improvement of the research capacity of African laboratories where the research is carried out.

The third is to support the improvement of specific types of infrastructure, i.e., bioinformatics and biorepository capacity, which are needed to do genomics-based and environmental research.

To achieve these objectives, the H3Africa program at NIH will comprise the following: Infrastructure improvement will be addressed by support for an H3Africa Bioinformatics Network (see companion FOA, RFA-RM-11-010 ) and for up to four planning grants for biorepositories in Africa (see companion FOA, RFA-RM-11-011).

It is anticipated that one or more full-scale H3Africa Biorepositories will be established in Africa after the planning grant/feasibility phase. A companion FOA to this document ( RFA-RM-11-009 ), Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Research Projects calls for genomic/genetic research applications from individual investigators who wish to add a genomics component to an existing disease-based research effort.

The current FOA calls for applications for the H3Africa Collaborative Centers, which should include opportunities for genomics/genetics /environmental research, research training, administrative training, and career support in a multi-institution collaboration . Finally, there will be a small grant program, that will be funded in FY13, to support research on the societal implications of genomics in Africa.

All awards under the NIH H3Africa program will be made to African Institutions and the majority of the awarded funds must be spent in Africa. All awardees will participate in the H3Africa Consortium to further enhance the collaborative nature of this Initiative. H3Africa is funded, in part, through the NIH Common Fund, which supports cross-cutting programs that are expected to have exceptionally high impact.

All Common Fund initiatives invite investigators to develop bold, innovative, and often risky approaches to address problems that may seem intractable or to seize new opportunities that offer the potential for rapid progress.

The objective of this FOA is to solicit applications to establish H3Africa Collaborative Centers (H3ACC) to implement research projects that will apply genomic approaches to understand the genetic and environmental contributors to chronic and infectious diseases and health in Africa.

Each H3ACC will be composed of multiple projects that collaborate to provide the complete capacity needed to carry out a genomics-based research project on a disease or condition important to Africa.

The Centers will have a strong training and career development component and clear organizational and The scientific focus of applications responsive to this FOA will broadly be within the scope of human genetic/environmental contributors to disease and other health-related traits in Africa. The following list provides examples of the types of topics that may be addressed.

It is important to note, however, that this list is meant only to provide guidance; it is not exhaustive and appropriate topics are not limited to the examples given here. The genetic/environmental contributors to non-communicable disease in Africa. The burden of chronic diseases in Africa has been difficult to measure because of the absence of a coordinated process to estimate disease prevalence.

However, a small set of prospective studies and hospital experiences have identified the increasingly important impact of chronic disease. Examples include a substantial burden from hypertension, a high mortality rate from stroke, a rapidly growing threat from diabetes, and an increasing recognition of the prevalence of mental illnesses.

Some clinical and epidemiologic research on such chronic conditions has been conducted in several sites on the continent, and clinical expertise can be found in many hospitals and tertiary care settings related to these conditions.

A small number of linkage, candidate gene, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been completed and have been able to identify potential new loci involved in disease, as well as replicate findings from other studies. An appropriate H3Africa project might involve collection of new or existing samples from one or more populations of interest from specific site(s).

The individuals from whom samples are collected should be well-phenotyped to ensure that the disease being studied has been properly diagnosed. Samples may be assayed by, for example, genotyping, exome or whole genome sequencing, and/or functional genomics methods to fully elucidate the genetic underpinnings of the disease or trait of interest.

Analysis of exposure data on these individuals could provide evidence about the environmental factors that, in conjunction with the genetic determinants, could help explain the etiology of the disease under investigation. The genetic/environmental contributors to communicable disease in Africa.

Infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, schistosomiasis, as well as many others, have historically been a major health problem in Africa. A variety of genetic and environmental factors contribute to developing, treating and preventing infectious diseases and their impact.

Significant attention and considerable funding has been given to the study of communicable diseases, and excellent research facilities for studying them are found throughout Africa.

One of the important aspects of the widespread nature of infectious diseases and the high rates of infection in populations living in similar environmental conditions is the considerable inter-individual phenotypic variability in susceptibility and response to infection, which can range from asymptomatic to death. Contemporary genomic approaches can help to understand the role that host genetics plays in these diseases.

Similarly, additional genomic analysis and studies of the genetics of the parasites and vectors involved in the diseases are needed. HIV/AIDS and malaria are among the most well-studied communicable diseases in Africa.

While NIH will consider study of the host factors involved in susceptibility to HIV infection and diseases that are co-morbid with HIV/AIDS (see below) as being responsive, studies of other infectious diseases are encouraged. of the human microbiome to health and disease in Africa.

The field of metagenomics has been enabled by recent advances in sequencing and other technologies, and studies of the role(s) of the human microbiome in health and disease have burgeoned. Changes in the microbiome at particular body sites have been correlated with the onset or progression of several diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, psoraisis and bacterial vaginosis.

Most microbiome studies have been done outside of Africa, but given the expectation that microbiome composition is highly dependent on many environmental factors, including geographical location, diet, socio-economic status, as well as host genetics, the relevance of the results of those studies to health and disease in Africa cannot be assumed.

As an individual’s microbiome is expected to make a significant contribution to health status, studies of the role of the microbiome in diseases of African interest, and comparative analyses of microbiomes from healthy cohorts, would be appropriate H3Africa research diseases in Africa.

Local founder effects and the cultural practice of consanguineous marriages in many African communities have resulted in the increased prevalence of monogenic traits across the continent. Recent studies have demonstrated that exome sequencing of a limited number of individuals can be used effectively to identify causative mutations in several Mendelian diseases.

An analysis of individuals affected by Mendelian diseases to identify causative mutations and modifier genes in African populations would be appropriate H3Africa research projects. Pharmacogenomics research seeks to identify genetic factors that are responsible for individual differences in drug efficacy and susceptibility to adverse drug reactions (ADRs). African populations have been underrepresented in pharmacogenomics research.

Yet these populations show the highest levels of genetic diversity among human populations.

Pharmacogenomics can be applied to numerous treatments of illnesses that plague the African continent, for example, identification of the genetic variant(s) involved in inter-individual variability in the response to chemotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment, drugs used for the treatment of HIV, malaria,and other infectious diseases, as well as pain medication.

Analysis of pharmacogenetic effects in Africans would be an appropriate H3Africa research project. While applications submitted in response to this FOA may propose research in any disease or health area that falls within the broad areas of genetic/environmental contributors to disease or health research, there are also specific areas of interest to the NIH components that are participating in H3Africa. These include: co-morbidities.

Research examining the genetic and genomic basis of HIV/AIDS disease and its co-morbidities including, but not limited to, host immune response to HIV infection; interaction of HIV with the host immune system; genomics in the context of HIV vaccine and microbicide development; host factors involved in co-infection, including tuberculosis, hepatitis C and hepatitis B in the context of HIV infection; host factors involved in AIDS-defining and non-AIDS defining malignancies in HIV-infected individuals; and host factors involved in complications associated with long-term HIV disease and antiretroviral therapy (ART), including metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, conditions associated with aging, and neurologic and neurocognitive Neurological disorders and stroke: Research in neurological projects that address the H3 goals are of interest.

Study designs may include a broad range of disciplines, such as molecular genetics, pharmacogenomics, epidemiology, stigma research, and intervention research.

Quality phenotyping is essential for genetic research; therefore, collection and analysis of genetic material from individuals participating in well characterized, neurological-based cohorts materials is of high interest, particularly in the the areas of stroke and stroke risk factors, epilepsy, and susceptibility to peripheral neuropathy due to infection or inflammation, as well as other neurological diseases and disorders.

Applications that enhance the NIH-funded Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) training experience are encouraged ( http://www. fic. nih.

gov/Grants/Search/Pages/Awards-Program-MEPI. aspx ).

Applications that use technologies such as mobile technologies that enhance health, knowledge, or care delivery of neurological disorders are also of and genomic basis of HIV/AIDS disease, abuse of licit or illicit substances (including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opiates), and related co-infections or co-morbidities: Topics include, but are not limited to studies of the host and viral determinants of immune responses to HIV infection in substance users, particularly related to specific disease phenotypes; the factors related to immune recovery following antiretroviral treatment in the context of substance use; determinants of susceptibility to HIV infection among substance users; complications associated with long-term HIV disease and substance use, such as tuberculosis, HIV/HCV-associated liver disease, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and neurologic and neurocognitive disorders; and viral evolution in association with injection or non-injection substance use.

B. Implementation of the objectives of H3Africa. As noted in the Background section, there are several specific objectives that the H3Africa Program is trying to achieve.

Applications submitted in response to this FOA must address the following: with other programs. The H3Africa requires the collaborative centers to form partnerships in Africa with institutions that have ongoing studies and offer infrastructure in the research focus area but are not currently conducting genomics and environmental research.

The objective is to rapidly expand the cadre of skilled genomicists throughout the continent through collaborations with expert genomicists, through career building within the Centers, and via training opportunities offered by the Centers. This is in addition to the expected training of new students, postdocs, technical support staff and others within the Collaborative Centers.

Collaborations could leverage existing NIH and WT initiatives in Africa http://www. h3africa. org/resources.

cfm , in addition to other funded activities supported by other U.S. government (USG) organizations such as the CDC, DOD, HRSA, USAID or non-USG entities such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Common Fund joined forces with PEPFAR to fund one such initiative in 2010, called the Medical Education Partnership Initiative ( http://www. fic.

nih. gov/Grants/Search/Pages/Awards-Program-MEPI. aspx ), which is building capacity in medical education, clinical, and research capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is already establishing infrastructure in various areas including computational hardware and connectivity, clinical training including in rural settings, research administration training, and research ethics training.

plan. The application should describe a well-conceived plan for the investigation of the genomic, and at the applicant’s discretion the environmental, contributor(s) to a disease or other health-related condition.

The applicant should provide a compelling justification for the choice of the condition to be studied and should clearly state how the research proposed will lead to an improved understanding of its genetic and environmental origin(s). The application should provide a description of the health impact of the condition in Africa, and the relationship (if any) to the condition in other parts of the world.

The applicant should present a well-considered plan for accomplishing the goals of the research applications for both the overall collaborative center and for each of the collaborating components. The plan for the overall center should discuss the types of data that will be analyzed and how those data will be obtained (see below).

The plans for the collaborating components should describe the specific contribution that each component will make to the identification and acquisition of the samples to be analyzed, the generation of the data, and the management and analysis of the data.

If the data are to be generated by the center itself, the applicant’s experience with the necessary technologies, the costs of generating the data, and the anticipated uses should be addressed. The availability of samples and supplies should be discussed, as should any issues of long-term maintenance and servicing of the necessary equipment.

Alternatively, the applicant may choose to send the samples elsewhere for data generation, for example to other research centers or to service providers. Such an approach could be taken, for example, for genotyping, microarray analysis or sequencing. In either case, the data generator may be in Africa or overseas.

In describing this approach, the applicant should describe how the samples will be prepared for shipment to the data generator, the type of data expected, and how the data will be returned to The applicant should describe how the resultant data, whether produced in-house or obtained externally, will be analyzed, including a discussion of the applicant’s experience with the relevant analytical technologies and methods.

collection and Human Subjects Issues. The research plan must include a detailed plan for sample acquisition (where applicable), storage, preparation of material needed etc. In particular, investigators are urged to obtain consent for the wide sharing of samples and data; justification should be provided if samples and data will not be shared or only shared in a limited manner.

A document entitled "Essential Elements of Informed Consent for H3Africa Research Projects" may be helpful to applicants in writing their informed consent documents; this can be found at http://www. h3africa. org/informedConsent.

cfm . A timeline for developing and implementing an informed consent process, including obtaining IRB approval, must be included in the application. H3Africa anticipates establishing a biorepository in Africa starting in 2014.

All samples (blood, DNA or cell lines) are expected to be deposited in the H3Africa Biorepository where they can be distributed and shared for further research consistent with achieving the goals of this funding initiative. Sample deposition must occur expeditiously, no later than the date of the first publication that describes the samples or by the end of the project, whichever comes first.

A statement of commitment from the applicant institution to send samples to the H3Africa Biorepository must be included in the application, consistent with achieving the goals of the H3Africa initiative. This should include a description of the host country’s policies for sending samples out of the country. Collaboration.

Most of the collaborations in which African biomedical research scientists have been involved have been with scientists from abroad, rather than with other Africans. One of the goals of the H3Africa Initiative is to foster collaborations between and among investigators within Africa in order to build a larger African scientific community that will lead to more training opportunities and cutting-edge science on the continent.

Such collaborations will also contribute to sustainability of African genomics programs. Therefore, applications submitted in response to this FOA will be required to be structured around significant collaborations with scientists at other institutions within the applicant’s home country or with scientists in other African counties.

One example of an acceptable collaboration would be one in which each aspect of the overall research program, such as sample acquisition, phenotyping, genomic data generation, data analysis, is done by a separate component. Another example would be one in which a full genomic analysis is done at each collaborating component on a different sample population and the results combined for a comparative analysis.

These examples are only intended to be illustrative; the organization of the collaborative activities will be determined by the investigators involved and the applicants should propose the set of collaborations that would best achieve the proposed research objectives.

While international collaborations with scientists outside of Africa may be included, the majority of the collaborative activity All applications must include a description of the overall set of proposed collaborations, how each collaborative component will contribute to the functioning of the Collaborative Center, how the collaborating groups will communicate, and how the overall Collaborative Center will be managed with collaborations that are not on site.

If appropriate, one of the collaborating components can be a management core. and Career Building. Establishing the next generation of African researchers to take advantage of genomic approaches to health research is a critical objective of the H3Africa program.

Therefore, the applications must include a component which may address either training, or career development, Training. In this FOA, training is meant to include the education in science and research techniques of graduate students at both the MS and PhD levels, of post-doctoral researchers, and of faculty through support for sabbaticals. It also includes technical training of laboratory staff.

Other types of training will be considered if appropriately justified. Applicants will have wide latitude in designing the training programs, which may be directed at as many of those levels as desired and for any period of time.

While it is expected that the majority of training will take place in African institutions, training opportunities abroad can also be included; in that case a plan for the return of the trainees back to Africa is required. The training program may include both coursework, laboratory experience, and mentoring. The applicant s training experience should be adequately presented.

Career development. Fostering the careers of recently trained doctoral-level investigators by recruiting or engaging them in the research programs as leaders of components is another valuable contribution that the Collaborative Centers can make to establishing the next generation of African researchers, and applicants are strongly encouraged to include a career development component in the application.

Start-up funds for new investigators can be requested to enable them to establish their own laboratories. A well thought-out plan for the training and career building program, its applicability to the research and its long term contributions to the goals of H3Africa should be included.

Long-term sustainability and institutional/governmental commitments to the training program and the independent career positions established through the Centers should also be discussed. Applicants should note that the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is a sister initiative to H3Africa within the Common Fund's overall Global Health Program.

H3Africa applicants are encouraged to collaborate with MEPI grantees as part of their training program where possible, in order to take advantage of the training infrastructure and opportunities available through MEPI. Bioinformatics. The bioinformatics capacity of the Collaborative Center should be clearly described, both at the level of the overall center and at the level of each of the collaborating components.

Issues of data acquisition, data management, data storage, and analytical capability should be addressed. The bioinformatics tools that will be used for each of those functions, and the applicant’s experience should be described in the application. These bioinformatics activities may be embedded within the individual research components or may appear as a separate bioinformatics core in the Center.

Additionally, a bioinformatics research component, for example new computational tool development, may be included within the research application as one of the collaborative aspects. Please note the H3Africa Program will fund a separate H3Africa Bioinformatics Network (see companion FOA, RFA-RM-11-010 ) to provide connectivity among the H3Africa participants, and eventually beyond H3Africa.

The H3Africa Bioinformatics Network will also have the ability to develop new bioinformatics tools for genomics research in Africa. The Collaborative Centers and any other H3Africa-funded activity will be required to interact with H3Africa Bioinformatics Network.

Therefore, applicants for a Collaborative Center award must include a statement from the applicant institution committing it to collaborating and sharing data with the H3Africa Bioinformatics Network consistent with achieving the goals of H3Africa. Infrastructure. To the extent possible, the Collaborative Centers are expected to utilize existing infrastructure in the research institutions where the studies will be carried out.

A description of existing institutional infrastructure must be provided in the Resources section of the grant application. This section should be detailed and well documented. Additional infrastructure components may be requested in the application.

Equipment. In the first year, up to $250,000 total costs for equipment may be requested beyond the $920,000 direct cost cap for the Collaborative Center budget (see Section II, Award Budget, below). The equipment