A regional National Institutes of Health (NIH) seminar on program funding and grants, the first of these seminars to be given in Seattle, will be hosted by the UW School of Medicine's Research Funding Service in June.

As the host institution, the School of Medicine will handle registration and logistics through its Continuing Medical Education program, although faculty and program planning are from the NIH Office of Extramural Research. At NIH, "extramural research" refers to work supported by NIH at universities and research centers around the country.

The two-day seminar will be Thursday and Friday, June 24 and 25, at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel downtown. In conjunction with the seminar, three computer lab workshops covering NIH electronic research administration systems, called NIH Commons, will be offered on June 23. These will provide hands-on training for grant managers, principal investigators and those preparing financial status reports.

Norka Ruiz Bravo, NIH deputy director for extramural research, will give the keynote address the morning of June 24, speaking on the new NIH Roadmap. The Roadmap provides a framework of research priorities, identifying the most compelling opportunities in three areas: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise.

Among other featured speakers are Marcia Hahn, assistant grants policy officer in the Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration; David Longfellow, senior coordinator in the Cancer Etiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute; and Dr. Anthony Coelho, review policy officer in the Office of Extramural Research.

The regional seminars provide information about the entire funding process. The presentations are geared toward researchers new to NIH, research administrators and postdoctoral trainees. The NIH instructors will be available for informal discussions.

UW faculty and staff are encouraged to register early, since both the seminar and the computer workshops are expected to fill up early. Cost for the seminar is $265 before June 1; the hands-on workshop is $50.

For a full schedule, faculty list and registration form, see the Web site at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/seminars.htm