Shared Instrumentation Grant Program

The National Institutes of Health, often known as NIH, is an independent agency operating inside the United States Department of Health and Human services that's mainly responsible for pursuing many of the country's biomedical and health-related scientific studies.

The mission of the NIH has always been to "seek fundamental understanding of the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability."

In an attempt to contribute to the realization of this mission, the National Institutes of Health has developed the Shared Instrumentation Grant Program wherein they intend to solicit applications from NIH-supported research proposing to upgrade or purchase a single piece of expensive instrumentation (useful to the industry of science and technology) that at a minimum costs $100,000.

Initially, this program seeks to aid the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program. The project looks to provide funds to allow NIH-recognized institutions to purchase rather expensive research instruments that can only be justified on a shared-use basis and that are needed for NIH-supported projects in translational, basic, or clinical areas.

The types of research instruments that can be purchased under this program are nuclear magnetic resonance systems, electron and confocal microscopes, mass spectrometers, protein and DNA sequencers, biosensors, x-ray diffractometers and cell sorters.

In most cases, research studies lead to fascinating medical breakthroughs; and the National Institutes of Health intend to contribute to these discoveries by providing researchers and scientists with high-end and top of the line equipment that could potentially make their work more easier and effective.

The minimum cost of the instruments will be $100,000 each, and the maximum amount that will be granted per application will be $600,000.

The institutions and organizations which will be qualified to fill out an application under the Shared Instrumentation Grant Program are the following:

a) Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
b) Private Institutions of Higher Education
c) Hispanic-serving Institutions
d) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
e) Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
f) Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
g) Nonprofit Organizations Apart From Institutions of Higher Education

The Department of Health and Human Services, the mother agency that is funding the Shared Instrumentation Grant Program, is the country's principal agency that is generally in charge of preserving the health of all Americans and ensuring the provision of fundamental health and human services to all people needing such services.