Eligibility Criteria for Use of the NIA Aged Rodent Colonies

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has facilitated aging research funded by many NIH Institutes, Federal Agencies and private Foundations, by allowing grantees of those institutes/agencies/foundations access to the NIA aged rodent colonies.In recent months, demands on the NIA aged rodent colonies have soared, to the extent that the colonies are severely depleted of aged animals. Because the NIA’s first priority must be to meet the resource needs of its own grantees, restrictions on the use of the aged rodent colonies have been imposed for an indefinite period of time. These changes are effective September 1, 2006, until further notice. Any questions about the policy or eligibility should be sent to Dr. Nancy Nadon, nadonn@nia.nih.gov .

1. The NIA aged rodent colonies will only be available for projects that are directly related to aging and are funded by the NIH or another U. S. Federal government agency (ex., VA, CDC). This policy applies to all investigators, regardless of whether or not they have used the NIA colonies in the past, and it applies to all of the NIA aged rodent colonies and to the caloric restricted rodent colony.
2. Large numbers of young animals will not be provided for any project, regardless of the funding source, as young animals are available elsewhere.Young animals to be used as controls for old animals will be provided, but all orders will be evaluated for appropriateness of the request for the NIA colonies. There is currently a limit of 50 animals per grant per month. Requests to exceed this limit should be submitted to Dr. Nadon before the order is placed.
3. F344 retired breeders will only be available to NIA-funded investigators or investigators ordering under the VA-NIA agreement.
4. In order to assist new investigators pursuing NIA funding, eligibility will be extended to those investigators currently lacking active support but who have had funding from the NIA within the past three years, have had unfunded applications to the NIA within the past three years, or have been supported within the past three years from an NIA grant on which they were not PI.
5. A separate price schedule applies to all eligible investigators with non-NIA NIH funding or funding from other government agencies, to reduce, but not eliminate, the NIA subsidy of the real cost of producing the aged rats and mice. Click here for the Price List.There will be no exceptions to this schedule.
6. Investigators funded for aging research through the Veteran’s Administration (VA) and eligible to order under the VA-NIA agreement will pay the same price as NIA grantees.