from the NIH Challenge Grant website:

Funded projects would develop and implement virtual collaborative environments to facilitate biomedical and translational research, e.g. addressing issues of privacy, technology transfers and sharing resources.

There’s also talk of Facebook and Second Life style applications helping to “eliminate barriers to scientific collaboration.”

According to the NIH, there’s $200 Million available for as many as 200 grants. Not a lot if you want to actually build something, but if you’re looking to research the effects of teledildonics on sex-addicts who enjoy watching avatars girate to techno music then you’re in luck!

Oh, and here’s the very interesting list of areas that are most likely to get a “challenge” grant…

High Priority Topics Within Broad Challenge Areas:

(01)  Behavior, Behavioral Change, and Prevention
(02)  Bioethics
(03)  Biomarker Discovery and Validation
(04)  Clinical Research
(05)  Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER)
(06)  Enabling Technologies
(07)  Enhancing Clinical Trials
(08)  Genomics
(09)  Health Disparities
(10)  Information Technology for Processing Health Care Data
(11)  Regenerative Medicine
(12)  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEM)
(13)  Smart Biomaterials – Theranostics
(14)  Stem Cells
(15)  Translational Science

Thanks to David Horowitz for finding the buried treasure and letting me know about it. He’s a technologist and entrepeneur with experience navigating the complex maze of paperwork and red tape associated with applying for and securing funding opportunities from the private sector and local, state and federal sources. So if you have any ideas that might warrant a grant from NIH, he’d make a good partner.

Oh, and by the way. The deadline for proposals is NEXT WEEK!