NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The National Institutes of Health plans to fund two projects to establish centers for genomic research into the underlying causes of genetic diseases. The National Human Genome Research Institute will commit $60 million to fund new centers for research into the genetic factors of common diseases and $10 million to fund additional research on Mendelian conditions.
The Centers for Common Disease Genomics will be a large-scale collaborative sequencing effort to identify rare gene variants that contribute to the risk for or protection from common diseases. Project goals include exploring a range of diseases as comprehensively as possible and better understanding the genomic architecture underlying inherited disease. The program will emphasize whole-genome sequencing over whole-exome sequencing where feasible.
NHGRI anticipates funding two to five cooperative agreement awards for a maximum of four years. The institute intends to commit a total of $60 million in fiscal year 2016. Application budgets are capped at $40 million per year.
Applications will be accepted from March 7, 2015 until April 7, 2015.
The grant for the Centers for Mendelian Genomics aims to cover a gap in knowledge about genes that cause Mendelian conditions. NHGRI anticipates that there are more protein-coding genes that will be found to cause Mendelian conditions, and that they may even be caused by non-coding regions of the genome.
Grants will fund projects to discover causal genes for human Mendelian conditions; improve methods, costs, and efficiency to enhance gene discoveries; disseminate tools, methods, and other resources developed at the centers; and facilitate collaboration.
NHGRI anticipates funding two to five cooperative agreement awards for a maximum of four years and a total of $10 million per year. Application budgets are capped at $5 million per year.
Applications will be accepted from March 7, 2015 until April 7, 2015.
Higher education, non-profit, for-profit, government, and tribal and regional organizations are eligible to apply.