The National Institutes of Health S10 Shared and High-end Instrumentation Grant programs support purchases of state-of-the-art shared instruments that enhance the research of NIH-funded investigators. Vanderbilt investigators who intend to apply for either program need to submit an internal proposal for review.
Vanderbilt investigators are eligible for two instrumentation programs offered by the NIH:
- Shared Instrumentation Grant Program (SIG) – The SIG Program funds grant awards in the $50,000 to $600,000 range.
- High-end Instrumentation Grant Program (HEI) – The HEI Program funds grant awards in the $600,001 to $2 million range.
The NIH submission deadline for both programs is June 1, 2023.
For all VU faculty, including those in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences, S10 submissions require prior institutional approval, which is obtained by submitting a pre-proposal to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation (OVPRI) via a REDCap survey.
The VBS S10 webpage provides a standard operating procedure with guidelines and requirements for submitting S10 proposals. Investigators should read the full procedure carefully before trying to complete the S10 VU REDCap survey.
The pre-approval process is required to avoid duplicate applications or multiple proposals that significantly overlap. VBS manages this process for proposals coming out of the School of Medicine, while OVPRI oversees it for other research departments.
Because of the complexity of the pre-proposal process, researchers should begin gathering required information and documents as soon as possible, as outlined in the standard operating procedure.
OVPRI’s Research Development and Support (RDS) is able to provide institutional-level information required by NIH for each application. For example, all applications must include a table with information about the performance of all previous S10 awards to Vanderbilt within the past five years.
While the pre-proposal process can appear onerous, it’s not duplicative of the final NIH application since much of the material required for pre-proposals is also part of final proposals made to the NIH. The majority of fully completed pre-proposals move forward in the selection process and are submitted to the NIH.
The deadline to submit pre-proposal S10 VU REDCap surveys is Friday, March 31, 2023. This will ensure enough time for institutional review and preparation of full proposals before the June 1 NIH deadline.
Researchers should start the pre-proposal process by sending a brief email stating their intent to apply to chuck.sanders@vanderbilt.edu (VBS investigators) or susannah.a.imhoff@vanderbilt.edu (other Vanderbilt investigators). Emails should include:
- Name of principal investigator
- Partnering core
- Equipment description of less than five (5) sentences
NOTE: Vanderbilt University Medical Center PIs do not use the Vanderbilt University guidelines or S10 REDCap survey. Instead, VUMC has a separate S10 process and set of guidelines, which can be found on the VUMC S10 Internal Proposal Form. Please contact Dr. Amy Martinez in the VUMC Office of Research with any questions about the VUMC S10 program.