A Message From Our President
I would like to thank you for your interest in the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program and National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI). The congressionally-mandated IDeA Program was established in 1993 to build biomedical research capacity in the 23 IDeA-eligible states and Puerto Rico, which have historically received low levels of NIH funding.
Through its various funding mechanisms, the IDeA program supports all facets of competitive biomedical research, including basic, clinical, behavioral and translational research as well as supporting faculty development and infrastructure improvements. These mechanisms are designed to strengthen an institution’s capacity to support biomedical research, enhance investigators’ competitiveness in securing national research funding, and enable clinical and translational research to meet the needs of all communities across the United States.
There are four main components of the IDeA program:
Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)
The COBRE program enables the establishment and development of innovative biomedical research centers through junior faculty mentoring and infrastructure development.
IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)
The INBRE program promotes a statewide biomedical research development network in each IDeA-eligible state, partnering research-intensive institutions with primarily undergraduate institutions.
IDeA Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) Programs
The CTR program supports clinical and translational research by developing research infrastructure and human resources, enhancing investigators’ and institutions’ ability to develop competitive clinical research programs, and strengthening collaborative research that addresses health conditions prevalent in IDeA states.
IDeA Co-Funding
IDeA Co-funding supports R01 and R15 applications from investigators in IDeA-eligible states assigned to any NIH institute or Center that were not funded by an Institute or Center.
NAIPI is a 501c3 with a rich history of serving as the collective voice of the IDeA grant Principal Investigators. The mission of NAIPI is to provide leadership and communication for the development, promotion, and improvement of biomedical research through the INBRE, COBRE, CTR, and all future grant mechanisms of the IDeA Program. NAIPI communicates with the EPSCOR/IDeA Coalition and Foundation to support direct congressional advocacy in partnership with Van Scoyoc Associates – a government affairs firm in D.C.
I have been involved with the IDeA Program for my entire professional career. I started my faculty appointment over 20 years ago in Arkansas as a COBRE junior faculty and have maintained involvement with IDeA-associated funding ever since as a COBRE and INBRE Core Director, COBRE Principal Investigator, and director of the IDeA National Resource for Quantitative Proteomics. Accordingly, it will be my honor to represent all IDeA grant Principal Investigators by supporting advocacy efforts for increasing federal funding and longevity of the IDeA Program. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Alan Tackett, PhD
President's Bio
Dr. Tackett obtained a degree in chemistry with distinction from Hendrix College in 1998, and subsequently received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in 2002. Dr. Tackett performed postdoctoral training in cancer epigenetics and proteomics at The Rockefeller University in New York City from 2002-2005. He joined the faculty at UAMS in 2005 and has risen the ranks to a tenured distinguished professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
