A SCOR should foster a coordinated research effort that strongly emphasizes basic disciplines, but also involves significant interaction between basic research and clinical investigations in one of these two disease areas. An established clinical and research program in the disease area should be present. Foreign organizations are not eligible. International collaborations in domestic applications will only be accepted if the resources are clearly shown to be unavailable in the United States. Responsibility for the planning, direction, and execution of the proposed project will be solely that of the applicant.
Investigators are to request five years of support.
The anticipated award date is July 1, 2002. A SCOR consists of at least three individual, but interrelated, research projects, each with high scientific merit and clear research objectives and, in the aggregate, devoted to a specific major health area. Each SCOR should provide a multidisciplinary approach utilizing both laboratory and clinical research to focus on a particular health problem and provide for a mutually supportive interaction between basic scientists and clinical investigators. Excluded from this definition are in vitro studies that utilize human tissues but do not deal directly with patients. Patient-oriented research includes mechanisms of human disease, therapeutic interventions, clinical trials and development of new technologies.