HomeAbout UsReports to CongressFY 2012 Congressional Justification

FY 2012 Congressional Justification

FY 2012 Budget

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

On this page:

• Organizational Chart
• Appropriations Language
• Amounts Available for Obligation
• Budget Mechanism—Total
• Major Changes in the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request
• Summary of Changes
• Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Graphs
• Budget Authority by Activity
• Authorizing Legislation
• Appropriations History
• Justification of Budget Request
• Director's Overview
• Budget Authority by Object
• Salaries and Expenses
• Details of Full-Time Equivalent Employment (FTEs)
• Details of Positions
• New Positions Requested

Organizational Chart

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Appropriations Language

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

For carrying out section 301 and title IV of the Public Health Services Act with respect to deafness and other communication disorders $426,043,000.

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Major Changes in the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request

Major changes by budget mechanism and/or budget activity detail are briefly described below. Note that there may be overlap between budget mechanism and activity detail and these highlights will not sum to the total change for the FY 2012 budget request for NIDCD, which is $7.458 million more than the FY 2010 Actual for a total of $426.043 million.

Research Project Grants (+$4.3 million; total $300.9 million). NIDCD will support a total of 868 Research Project Grant (RPG) awards in FY 2012. Noncompeting RPGs will increase by 11 awards and $2.9 million. Competing RPGs will decrease by 2 awards and increase by $1.4 million. The NIH policy for FY 2012 RPG's is a 1% inflationary increase for non-competing grants and a 1% average cost increase for competing grants, versus the FY 2011 CR.

Research Centers (-$2.4 million). Research Centers decrease by 3 awards and $2.4 million.

Other Research (-$0.8 million). Research Careers increase by 4 awards and $0.8 million. Other-Other Research decreases by 3 awards and $1.6 million.

Training (+$0.6 million). A four percent stipend increase for both Individual and Institutional awards is provided, versus the FY 2011 CR, and the number of full-time training positions (FTTP) is maintained at 337.

Research & Development Contracts (+$4.8 million). This increase provides for incremental FY 2012 costs for trans-NIH initiatives such as: Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND), plus ongoing NIDCD contracts and inter/intra-agency agreements.

Intramural Research (+$0.3 million; total $38.8 million). Intramural Research will receive an increase of $0.3 million to cover the costs of pay and other increases, including one additional FTE.

Research Management and Support (+$0.6 million; total $20.6 million). RMS will receive an increase of $0.4 million to cover the costs of pay and other increases.

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Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Graphs

History of Budget Authority and FTEs

Distribution by Mechanism

Change by Selected Mechanism

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NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Authorizing Legislation

	PHS Act/Other Citation	U.S. Code Citation	2011 Amount Authorized	FY 2010 Actual	2012 Amount Authorized	FY 2012 PB
Research and Investigation	Section 301	42§241	Indefinite	$418,585,000	Indefinite	$426,043,000
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders	Section 401(a)	42§281	Indefinite		Indefinite
Total, Budget Authority				$418,585,000		$426,043,000

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Justification of Budget Request

Authorizing Legislation: Section 301 and title IV of the Public Health Service Act, as amended.

Program funds are allocated as follows: Competitive Grants/Cooperative Agreements; Contracts; Direct Federal/Intramural and Other.

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Director's Overview

Approximately one in six Americans will experience a communication disorder to some degree in his or her lifetime. For those individuals, the basic components of communication (sensing, interpreting, and responding to people and things in our environment) can be extremely challenging. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) manages a broad portfolio of both basic and clinical research focused on understanding the normal processes and disorders of human communication. NIDCD advances human communication research and mitigates the associated disorders by conducting and supporting research and research training in three program areas: hearing/balance, smell/taste, and voice/speech/language. These processes are fundamental to the way we perceive and participate in the world around us.

NIDCD Accomplishments. In the past year, NIDCD has supported research activities in the following areas of communication science:

• Functional Hair Cells from Stem Cells: Hair cells in the inner ear are critical for both hearing and balance. Since mammals normally don't regenerate damaged or lost hair cells, loss of hair cells leads to loss of hearing or balance. NIH-supported scientists developed a method for generating hair cells from both mouse embryonic stem cells and mouse induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Tests suggest that the cells behave like hair cells in response to mechanical stimulation. Scientists hope these mouse studies will enable them to generate similar hair cell-like cells from human stem cells. Understanding the molecular events that enable hair cells to organize and send messages to the brain may enable scientists to translate basic science into treatments to restore lost hearing and balance ¹.

   

  1. Oshima K, Shin K, Diensthuber M, Peng AW, Ricci AJ, Heller S. Mechanosensitive hair cell-like cells from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells. Cell. 141(4): 704–716, 2010.

• Stuttering Genes Identified: Stuttering affects three million Americans, but its cause is largely unknown. Scientists have suspected there is a genetic cause to stuttering because it tends to occur in families, but finding the right families to study, and enough of them, is challenging. Scientists have now determined that certain populations worldwide have a higher incidence of stuttering. Using genomic technologies to accelerate discoveries and emphasizing global health, NIDCD intramural scientists studied families from the U.S, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan with inherited stuttering and have identified chromosome 12 as a likely location for a gene involved in stuttering. In 2010, the scientists identified mutations in three genes in individuals who stutter. The genes (GNPTAB, GNPTG, and NAGPA) encode enzymes that help break down and recycle cellular components. Future studies will try to determine how problems with breaking down and recycling worn out parts of the cells interfere with speech production to cause stuttering ².

   

  2. Kang C, Riazuddin S, Mundorff J, Krasnewich D, Friedman P, Mullikin JC, Drayna D. Mutations in the lysosomal enzyme-targeting pathway and persistent stuttering. N Engl J Med. 362(8): 677–685, 2010.

• New Brain Stimulation Technique Shows Promise for People with Aphasia: Aphasia, a language disorder in which individuals lose the ability to express or understand language, affects nearly one million Americans. It usually occurs as the result of a traumatic brain event, such as stroke, head injury, or a tumor that damages the language centers of the brain. Recently, NIDCD-supported scientists have identified two novel treatment strategies that can improve outcomes for individuals with chronic aphasia. The first strategy, transcranial direct-current stimulation, builds on knowledge from animal studies that electrically stimulating the brain can enable remodeling and allow new brain regions to take over for damages areas. The second strategy, a behavioral treatment designed to encourage word/object associations, has demonstrated effectiveness in regaining language when the damage occurs in specific brain areas. Both of these strategies will translate basic science into treatment programs that address the specific needs of individuals with aphasia ³.

   

  3. Fridriksson J. Preservation and modulation of specific left hemisphere regions is vital for treated recovery from anomia in stroke. J Neurosci. 30(35): 11558–11564, 2010. Baker JM, Rorden C, Fridriksson J. Using transcranial direct-current stimulation to treat stroke patients with aphasia. Stroke. 41(6): 1229–1236, 2010.

NIDCD Plans, Priorities, and Challenges for the Future. NIDCD plans to continue supporting new and early stage investigators that have innovative ideas and fresh perspectives, and plans to maintain support for new and competing Research Project Grants. Driven by compelling public health needs along with recent scientific progress, NIDCD prioritizes its research investment to identify the most promising opportunities for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, thereby improving the quality of life for people living with a communication disorder. Since communication disorders affect individuals of all ages and ethnicities, NIDCD conducts and supports a broad basic and clinical research portfolio. For example, NIDCD research priorities for the future include:

• Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL): Approximately 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 69—or 26 million Americans—have a hearing loss that may have been caused by exposure to loud sounds or noise. NIHL can occur when individuals are exposed to loud noise, yet this disorder is preventable when good hearing health is practiced, such as wearing ear protection in noisy situations. In enhancing the evidence base for health care decisions and translating basic science to better treatments, NIDCD-supported scientists are studying ways to prevent NIHL and developing interventions to reduce NIHL. Since NIHL is one of the major health complaints of U.S. troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, these research finding will be crucial for the veteran population.
• Clinical Research and Clinical Trials: NIDCD places high emphasis on translating basic science into new and better treatments by supporting and conducting clinical research and clinical trials on the prevention, pathogenesis, pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, management, or epidemiology of diseases or disorders of human communication. NIDCD initiatives are promoting research for translating basic research into clinical interventions for human health and are supporting Clinical Research Centers that enable teams of scientists to focus on a central clinical theme related to communication disorders. NIDCD-supported clinical trials are exploring treatments for sudden deafness, tinnitus, vertigo, and voice disorders.
• Support of Clinician-Researchers in Communication Sciences: NIDCD helps the U.S. maintain its leadership in biomedical research by supporting a robust research program of the best and brightest scientists studying communication sciences. The Institute has several new and continuing programs to reinvigorate the biomedical research community and train health professionals in fundamental, patient-oriented, and translational research from the early clinical training career stage through the mid-career stage. For example, NIDCD has a program to establish a network of short-term research training programs in the hearing sciences for students in professional doctoral programs leading to the Au.D. degree in audiology. These programs provide the students with hands-on exposure to clinical and translational research. NIDCD also has recently issued an initiative to establish research mentoring networks for budding clinician-scientists focusing on research on human communication, to nurture the research career development of promising clinician-scientists.

Overall Budget Policy: The FY 2012 request for NIDCD is $426.043 million, an increase of $7.458 million or +1.8 percent above the FY 2010 Actual. NIDCD will continue to support new and early stage investigators, and maintain an adequate number of competing Research Project Grants (RPG's), particularly R01's. In FY 2012, NIDCD will support new investigators on R01 equivalent awards at success rates approximately equivalent to those of established investigators submitting new R01 equivalent applications. The budget provides a 1 percent inflationary increase for non-competing RPG's, and a 1 percent average cost increase for competing RPG's. The NIDCD allocates a portion of the funds available for competing RPG's to High Program Priority (HPP) projects outside of the automatic pay line. NIDCD will continue emphasizing faculty, postdoctoral and student training in our three program areas: hearing and balance; smell and taste; and voice, speech & language sciences. Trained investigators will be encouraged to choose a research career through the Pathways to Independence program. In FY 2012, NIH will provide an increase of four percent for stipends levels under the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award training program, to continue efforts to attain the stipend levels recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. This will build on the two percent increase in stipend levels for FY 2011. Stipend levels were largely flat for several years, and the requested increase will help to sustain the development of a highly qualified biomedical research workforce. Funds are included in R&D Contracts to reflect NIDCD's share of NIH-wide funding required to support several trans-NIH initiatives, such as the Therapies for Rare and Neglected Diseases program (TRND), the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Network (OppNet), and support for a new synchrotron at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. For example, each IC that will benefit from the new synchrotron will provide funding to total NIH's commitment to support this new technology—$10 million.

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Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

Hearing and Balance Program

Hearing impairment, deafness, and balance disorders can impose a heavy social and economic burden on individuals, their families, and their communities. Approximately 36 million American adults report some degree of hearing loss ⁴ and almost eight million adults report a chronic problem with balance ⁵. In addition, approximately two to three out of 1 babies born in the United States each year have a detectable hearing loss ⁶, which can affect their speech, language, social, and cognitive development. Accordingly, research projects within the NIDCD Hearing and Balance program encompass a significant portion of NIDCD's portfolio. Both hearing and balance disorders are prevalent, decrease quality of life, and cross all ethnic and socioeconomic lines. To study normal and disordered functions of the auditory and vestibular systems, NIDCD utilizes a wide range of research approaches, such as molecular genetics, cellular biology, biomedical imaging, nanotechnology, psychoacoustics, and systems biology, and structural biology. NIDCD has supported research that will help lead to the improvement or prevention of hearing and balance disorders. For example, building on lessons learned from cochlear implant research and technology, NIDCD-supported scientists are developing an implanted device to help partially restore a person's sense of balance. The prototype vestibular implant will be used in a small, 10-person clinical trial of individuals with Meniere's disease that have disabling vertigo (dizziness). The implant has the potential to benefit more than 90 million Americans who experience dizziness or balance problems.

4. Based on NCHS/NHIS data for 2007.

5. Based on prevalences from the 1994–95 Disability Supplement to the NHIS and current US population estimates.

6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Identifying infants with hearing loss - United States, 1999-2007. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 59(8): 220-223. Gaffney M, Green DR, Gaffney C. Newborn hearing screening and follow-up: are children receiving recommended services? Public Health Rep. 125(2): 199-207, 2010.

Budget Policy: The 2012 budget estimate for the Hearing and Balance program is $212.680 million, an increase of $3.785 million or +1.8 percent from the FY 2010 Actual. In FY 2012, the program will continue emphasizing faculty, postdoctoral and student training on hearing and balance sciences. Trained investigators will be encouraged to choose a research career through the Pathways to Independence program. Making R01 awards to first-time and early-stage investigators in the area of hearing and balances sciences will be given funding priority.

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Smell and Taste Program

Each year, more than 200 people visit a physician for chemosensory problems such as smell and taste disorders ⁷. Many more smell and taste disorders go unreported. The NIDCD Smell and Taste program supports the study of the chemical senses (smell and taste) to enhance our understanding of how individuals communicate with their environment and how chemosensory disorders can be identified and treated. Smell and taste play important roles in preferences and aversions for aromas, specific foods, and flavors. By providing knowledge on food preferences, research on smell and taste may help increase our understanding of obesity and diabetes, and help develop prevention and treatment strategies. Serious health problems like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, malnutrition, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis are all accompanied or signaled by chemosensory problems. NIDCD-supported research on molecular and cellular biology, biophysics, and biochemistry of the olfactory and gustatory systems is paving the way for improved diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of chemosensory disorders. For example, NIDCD is participating in a joint NIH/National Science Foundation initiative (Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience) that supports research to understand the functions of complex neurobiological systems, including smell and taste. NIDCD has funded two projects studying olfaction (smell) as part of this initiative.

7. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/smelltaste/stquickstats.htm.

Budget Policy: The 2012 budget estimate for the Smell and taste program is $61.754 million, an increase of $1.098 million or +1.8 percent from the FY 2010 Actual. In FY 2012, the program will continue emphasizing faculty, postdoctoral and student training on smell and taste sciences. Trained investigators will be encouraged to choose a research career through the Pathways to Independence program. Making R01 awards to first-time and early-stage investigators in the area of smell and taste sciences will be given funding priority.

Voice, Speech, and Language Program

Voice, speech, and language are tools that all individuals use to communicate or share thoughts, ideas, and emotions. However, approximately 7.5 million people in the United States have trouble using their voice ⁸. By the first grade, roughly five percent of children have noticeable speech disorders ⁹. Between six and eight million people in the United States have some form of language impairment ¹⁰. The NIDCD Voice, Speech, and Language program continues to determine the nature, causes, and prevention of voice, speech, and language disorders. Disorders involving voice, speech, or language, as well as swallowing, can have an overwhelming effect on an individual’s health and quality of life; they affect people of all ages with or without hearing impairment, including children with autism and adults with aphasia or other speech disorders. Therefore, NIDCD continues its commitment to develop effective diagnostic and intervention strategies for people with voice, speech, or language impairments. For example, NIDCD seeks to accelerate basic, translational, and clinical research into therapeutic approaches for spasmodic dysphonia, a voice disorder caused by involuntary movements of one or more muscles involved in the production of voice. Individuals who have spasmodic dysphonia may have occasional difficulty speaking or they may experience sufficient difficulty to interfere with communication. In a funding opportunity announcement, NIDCD is encouraging research collaborations between epidemiologists, neurologists, scientists, speech-language pathologists, and clinicians to foster improved diagnosis and treatment for spasmodic dysphonia.

8. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/pages/vsl.aspx.

9. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Screening for Speech and Language Delay in Preschool Children, http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf06/speech/speechrev.htm. Shriberg LD, Tomblin JB, McSweeny JL. Prevalence of speech delay in 6-Year-old children and comorbidity with language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 42: 1461–1481, 1999.

10. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/pages/vsl.aspx.

Budget Policy: The 2012 budget estimate for the Voice, Speech, and Language program is $92.221 million, an increase of $1.641 million or +1.8 percent from the FY 2010 Actual. In FY 2012, the program will continue emphasizing faculty, postdoctoral and student training on voice, speech, and language sciences. Trained investigators will be encouraged to choose a research career through the Pathways to Independence program. Making R01 awards to first-time and early-stage investigators in the area of voice, speech, and language sciences will be given funding priority.

Intramural Research Program

The NIDCD Intramural Research Program conducts basic and clinical research in human communication, with a primary interest in hearing. Research projects address the genetics of hearing and balance disorders in human and mouse models; identifying molecules and genes important for inner ear development; observing hearing in action by neuroimaging and computer modeling of brain function; and describing how auditory nerve cells communicate. This intense concentration on hearing research and its genetic causes has enabled NIDCD intramural scientists to make significant research progress on this priority for NIDCD. In the past year, NIDCD intramural scientists applied next-generation sequencing technologies to rapidly accelerate the pace of deafness gene discovery. This advance enabled them to identify the gene that is mutated in DFNB79 deafness. NIDCD intramural scientists are also making important discoveries about how our sense of hearing works. They discovered the function of a protein produced by a gene in which mutations cause DFNB28 deafness. Knowledge of how this protein works may help scientists determine a way to restore hearing to individuals who have this form of inherited deafness. NIDCD intramural scientists recently developed a way to measure the physical properties of a membrane (the tectorial membrane) in the inner ear that plays a critical role in detecting sound. This technique will enable scientists to study the functions of biological structures that produce or detect sound. Another NIDCD intramural laboratory determined that symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system. These data suggest that early humans may have developed symbolic language, pairing gestures and meaning, and then used the same system to develop spoken language, pairing vocal sound and meaning ¹¹.

11. Kitajiri S, et al. Actin-bundling protein TRIOBP forms resilient rootlets of hair cell stereocilia essential for hearing. Cell. 141(5): 786-798, 2010. Rehman AU, et al. Targeted capture and next-generation sequencing identifies C9orf75, encoding taperin, as the mutated gene in nonsyndromic deafness DFNB79. Am J Hum Genet. 86(3): 378–388, 2010. Gavara N, Chadwick RS. Noncontact microrheology at acoustic frequencies using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy. Nat Methods. 7(8): 650–654, 2010. Xu J, Gannon PJ, Emmorey K, Smith JF, Braun AR. Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106(49): 20664–20669, 2009.

Budget Policy: The 2012 budget estimate for the Intramural Research Program is $38.784 million, an increase of $0.330 million or +0.9 percent from the FY 2010 Actual. The NIDCD Intramural Research Program has been a leader in research on hereditary hearing impairment and has identified many genes whose mutation causes hearing loss. In FY 2012, NIDCD intramural scientists will continue their efforts in identifying mutation in genes which impacts hearing, and identifying or studying additional genes involved in communication disorders in humans and animal models. In accordance with the Scientific Director’s plan, the one additional FTE will be utilized to hire additional staff to enhance NIDCD’s translational and clinical research.

Research Management and Support (RMS) Program

NIDCD RMS activities provide administrative, budgetary, logistical, and scientific support in the review, award, and monitoring of research grants, training awards, and research and development contracts. RMS functions also include strategic planning, coordination, and evaluation of the Institute’s programs, regulatory compliance, international coordination, and liaison with other Federal agencies, Congress, and the public. The Institute currently oversees over 1,300 research grants, training awards, and R&D contracts. To ensure that NIDCD supports and conducts the most promising research, the Institute is in the process of developing a new Strategic Plan. The Plan presents a series of goals and objectives that serve as a guide to NIDCD in prioritizing its research investment, to keep current with the state-of-the-science, and highlight advances in the field of communication disorders. To develop a new Plan, NIDCD will convene a series of working groups and solicit input from scientific experts, the National Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Advisory Council, NIDCD staff, and the public. The new Plan will be published on the NIDCD website in January 2012, and will apply to Fiscal Years 2012–2016.

Budget Policy: The 2012 budget estimate for the RMS program is $20.604 million, an increase of $0.604 million or +3.0 percent from the FY 2010 Actual. NIDCD will continue to manage activities of the NIH Stem Cell Task Force. Additional funds will be utilized for scientific workshops, improved websites, enhanced web-based information systems to improve scientific and administrative management, and strategic planning.

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