National Association of IDeA PIs (NAIPI)

The National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI) is the collective voice of all of us in the IDeA community.

NAIPI aims to protect and promote the IDeA programs. The mission of NAIPI is to provide leadership and communication for the development, promotion and improvement of biomedical research through the INBRE, COBRE, and CTR IDeA programs. It fosters interactions, promotes resource sharing, enhances the national visibility of the INBREs, COBREs, and CTRs, develops consensus on priorities, identifies and disseminates best practices, identifies opportunities and develops strategies.

NAIPI’s Specific Objectives:

• To foster interactions between the IDeA Program and its constituencies
• To promote resource sharing among the INBRE, COBRE, and CTR Programs
• To enhance the visibility of the IDeA Program
• To develop a consensus on priorities and new directions for the IDeA Program
• To identify and disseminate best practices within the IDeA Program
• To identify opportunities and develop strategies to achieve the common goals of the IDeA Program

What NAIPI does for the membership:

1. Works closely with the EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation (EIF) and Coalition to communicate to Congressional representatives the impact and value of IDeA programs to each IDeA state. This has resulted in consistent increases to the IDeA budget leading to more COBRE awards, new IDeA programs (CTR-, I-RED), Administrative Supplement opportunities for existing programs, and enhanced co-funding opportunities for IDeA R01 submissions.
   1.  The Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill, which funds IDeA was cut by almost 30% in the House bill and 15% in the Senate bill. Despite this, the House bill recommends a $10 million increase for IDeA ($436 million) and the Senate bill recommends level funding for IDeA ($426 million).
   2. Years ago, the Foundation and IDeA PIs identified a target of 1% of NIH budget allocated to IDeA. If the $10M increase is approved, IDeA will receive 1% of the total NIH allocation.
2. Meets monthly with EIF to review the congressional budget discussions/status and identify and share funding and program priorities with NIH/NIGMS administrators for their program discussions.
3. Works closely with the NISBRE U13 PI (Gus Kousoulas, LA) managing and financing the bi-annual National IDeA Symposium for Biomedical Research Excellence meeting. NISBRE is IDeA’s “big event” to bring together the entire IDeA community to showcase students, funded investigators, and programs. NISBRE 2024 will be June 16-20, 2024 at the Washington Hilton. More information will follow on this topic.
4. Is working to enhance support for our IDeA Program Evaluators and Administrative Leaders (PEARL) organization that is working to enhance IDeA program processes, share best practices in evaluation and administration, and enhance communication with NIGMS IDeA program personnel to address management issues and reduce administrative burden.
5. Provides support for meetings that contribute to NAIPI meeting organization goals. For example, NAIPI sponsored lunch at the recent INBRE PI/PC meeting in Las Vegas.
6. Provides support for outstanding presentation/poster awards at regional conferences and NAIPI.
7. Will provide student/postdoc/ pre-tenure faculty travel awards for NISBRE 2024 as well as support for other NISBRE activities and events.