Infrastructure and Opportunity Fund Management Core (IOFMC)

IOFM Core: Infrastructure and Opportunity Fund Management Core Project Summary The NIH Cooperative Centers on Human Immunology (CCHI) are designed to promote human immunology research focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying human immune system regulation and function; the ultimate goal being the prevention and treatment of infectious and immune-mediated diseases. The Program provides funding for 5-7 Centers as well as additional financial support for collaborative and pilot/feasibility projects, resource and reagent development, translational projects, and/or early-stage investigator projects provided through the Infrastructure and Opportunity Fund (IOF). One of the Centers funded through the CCHI U19 mechanism is selected to establish an Infrastructure and Opportunity Fund Management Core (IOFMC), which bears the responsibility of managing and distributing the IOF. Working with the NIH Program Officer and the CCHI Steering Committee, the major goal of the UAB IOFMC will be to establish an administrative structure that will manage the supplemental projects from the solicitation of applications, through pre- and post-award, to award close-out and reporting The UAB IOFMC will: i) coordinate the IOF project solicitation, application and selection process; ii) establish subcontracts to distribute IOF supplemental awards to recipients at other institutions, usually another CCHI Center, but often a collaborating institution; iii) provide administrative, reporting and fiscal oversight of the IOF awards to ensure that the recipient of the award and the institution in which they work are in compliance with all applicable NIH and federal regulations and that charges to the subaward are reasonable, allocable and allowable; iv) support the NIH Program Officer and CCHI Steering Committee in the execution and advancement of programmatic decisions; and v) serve as the liaison between the IOF awardees, CCHI Steering Committee and the NIH. The IOFMC will also develop and manage a website for CCHI activities. Completion of these objectives by the UAB IOFMC will allow the NIH to successfully leverage the existing and future intellectual, infrastructure and unique reagents/samples available within the CCHI program to advance the overall scientific goals of the CCHI.