Planning Grant for International Centers for Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Picrc)

The summary for the Planning Grant for International Centers for Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Picrc) grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Institutes of Health, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Planning Grant for International Centers for Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Picrc): NCCAM wishes to enhance the understanding of complementary and alternative (CAM)/traditional medical (TM) systems. Many CAM/TM practices originate or are traditional in other countries. An international scope is therefore critical for all areas of NCCAM's strategic plan (available at http://nccam.nih.gov/about/plans/fiveyear/index.htm). NCCAM is thus committed to the study of CAM both in its native setting, with the cooperation and collaboration of indigenous peoples and practitioners, and among minority populations in the U.S, some of which have brought these healing traditions to the U.S. where, over time, the practices may have been modified. It is NCCAM's belief that the optimal means of conducting such studies at this time is through collaborations between experienced investigators in U.S. institutions and scientists and practitioners in foreign countries. This RFA outlines a mechanism to facilitate such collaborative efforts. Alternative medical systems are complete systems of theory and practice that have evolved independently of, and often prior to, current conventional biomedical approaches. Examples of alternative medical systems include, but are not limited to, Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, and the traditional medical systems that have been developed by African, European, Middle-Eastern, Asian, and Central and South American cultures. Components that might be studied include, but are not limited to, diet, meditation and/or the medical use of herbal preparations. Global studies of alternative medical systems and practices can serve a dual purpose: 1) They can establish which CAM/TM interventions, as practiced in their countries of origin or as assimilated in the U.S. as a result of immigration or globalization, can benefit health and well being; and 2) They can facilitate the integration of these practices into conventional health care, especially into programs designed to address the health needs of minority populations. NCCAM intends to address the above issues by establishing partnerships and cross-cultural exchange through which foreign and U.S. institutions and investigators collaborate to design and implement research on CAM/traditional indigenous medical systems or components thereof in the cultures and/or environments in which they originated by supporting International Centers for Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (ICRC). The ICRC will provide conventional investigators (both U.S. and foreign) with a unique opportunity to study traditional medical systems and practices on their native grounds in collaboration with indigenous practitioners. The conventional researchers would then be uniquely positioned to examine how CAM/TM practices may be changed when they are imported to the U.S. The ICRC should benefit scientists in the foreign country(ies) by enhancing their skills in the design and implementation of cutting-edge research through collaboration with U.S. scientists. Both U.S. and foreign CAM/TM researchers should also benefit from the development of institutional and regional research infrastructure in the foreign country(ies), and from enhanced opportunities for career training and development. It is the hope that infrastructure and other enhancements resulting from the initial ICRC funding will make the participating institutions centers of excellence in rigorous CAM/traditional medicine research in their geographical areas, and that the resulting research will benefit health in all participating countries. Because the applications for the ICRC will require documentation of the structure and infrastructure of a complex, international, multidisciplinary, multi-site center comprising three synergistic, exploratory/developmental research projects and at least one core, including formulation of details of research plans, subcontracts, etc., the overall initiative will use a two-phase approach. This RFA solicits applications for the prerequisite Phase I of the future ICRC initiative. The Phase I ICRC (PICRC) initiative provides support for organization, planning, preparation and assembly of a full-fledged Phase II ICRC application. The two-year planning grants funded within the PICRC initiative, like the more extensive grants to be awarded in Phase II, should be focused on studies of CAM/TM, or components thereof, in their areas and populations of origin. NCCAM intends to issue an RFA for the Phase II ICRC initiative in 2004. NCCAM does not currently expect to fund more than one Phase II ICRC.