NOSI for COVID Rehab Research Webinar

This free webinar about timely funding opportunities for rehabilitation research related to COVID-19 was held by Zoom on December 11, 2020, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EST.

This event featured Dr. Theresa Cruz, director of NCMRR, with a discussion of this Notice of Special Interest, which encourages funding applications investigating rehabilitation in the COVID population. She was joined by representatives of the Medical Rehabilitation Research Resource (MR3) Network, who presented information about resources freely available to you from each MR3 center that could assist and enable research.

We are pleased to present here a recording of the webinar for your reference, as well as a transcript of the questions and answers portion of the session, which was held via Zoom text chat.

Questions and Answers:

For Theresa Cruz:

Question: Theresa, I noticed the Clinical trial R01 option expires in early 2021. Will that PA be renewed and remain as an option related to the NOSI?
Answer: (Theresa Cruz): NICHD is planning to have a new PA for R01 CT for the February due date, but you are correct that it is not on the street yet.

Question: Does the NOSI apply to career development awards (K-series)? Thank you.
Answer: The NOSI does not refer applicants to K awards. Please reach out to me to discuss.

Question: Does the status of the vaccine approvals and rollout affect the priorities for this NOSI? Since children will likely be vaccinated after adults, do you think addressing their care needs is more urgent/significant for this call?
Answer: Proposals of vaccinating children might be appropriate to other parts of NICHD or NIAID. But if you are talking about specific issues of vaccinating children with disabilities and their family dynamics - you can discuss it with us at NCMRR.

Question: Given the numerous directions, one can focus on with this NOSI, I am trying to determine what patient population we should propose to help first. Given that adults will receive the vaccines first, I wondered if there would be any priority placed on pediatric research.
Answer: There are lots of needs, as you said. I would not say that NCMRR has a patient population of preference.

For Mark George:

Question: So far, what has been the incidence of bradycardia or syncope events with the taVNS effort in COVID- 19 patients?
Answer: There has only been one subject. She has not had syncope and none in the lab. But we want to be vigilant and get safety data.