Innovation Grants to Nurture Initial Translational Efforts (IGNITE): Assay Development and Neurotherapeutic Agent Identification (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism solicits applications for an R01 Clinical Trial Required mechanism focusing on alcohol treatment and recovery research. This NOFO will focus broadly on topics relevant for treatment of and recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD), including: medications development, precision medicine, behavioral therapies and mechanisms of behavioral change (MOBC), recovery, translational research, and innovative methods and technologies for AUD treatment and recovery.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism solicits applications for an R01 Clinical Trial Optional mechanism focusing on alcohol health services. This NOFO will broadly focus on closing the treatment gap for individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD); within this focus, there are five major areas of emphasis: (1) increasing access to treatment for AUD, (2) making treatment for AUD more appealing, (3) examining cost structures and insurance systems, (4) conducting studies on dissemination and implementation of existing evidence-based approaches to treating AUD, and (5) reducing health disparities as a means of addressing the treatment gap in AUD for health disparity populations.

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) seeks to broaden the types of knowledge, skills, expertise, experience, and perspectives brought to bear in research addressing the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of advances in human genetics or genomics. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) solicits UM1 applications from domestic organizations located in the United States and its territories that received less than $30 million per year in total NIH funding for the past three fiscal years. These organizations are underrepresented among those receiving NHGRI funding for ELSI research. The Building Partnerships and Broadening Perspectives to Advance Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research (BPAER) Program will support: 1) transdisciplinary ELSI research addressing timely, complex, and understudied topics, 2) the establishment of research teams that include representatives from relevant communities who are affected by and have an interest in the proposed research, 3) research capacity building to develop, conduct and sustain ELSI research, and 4) workforce development opportunities for early career scholars, research team members, and other research project staff. Transdisciplinary ELSI research projects require involvement from two or more fields of knowledge and use of multiple research approaches. Relevant communities must be actively and meaningfully involved on ELSI research teams across all phases of proposed research projects. Research capacity building plans must be informed by a needs assessment. Given the complex structure, a strategic management plan, evaluation plan, and sustainability plan are required to ensure successful completion of the program.

NIOSH is encouraging the submission of an application from qualified organizations for a National Center for Construction Safety and Health Research and Translation. Applicants are encouraged to propose multidisciplinary approaches and coordination for impactful applied and intervention research, hazard identification, and controls; develop partnerships for implementing prevention and intervention activities; and serve as a leader in research translation and research-to-practice for the protection of construction workers in the U.S. The Center will accomplish these goals by integrating and advancing research, research translation, best practices, policy and guidance, and capacity building. Center work should consider the NIOSH strategic plan and NORA construction research objectives. Center structure should take advantage of diverse scientific resources and focus on national worker safety and health issues. Centers should emphasize the creation and implementation of evidence-based solutions that address important construction industry safety and health problems. Collaborations with other academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and other occupational safety and health-focused groups are expected. Applicants must concisely describe the occupational health burden of important safety and health issues in the construction industry and discuss how focused research and outreach activities will help alleviate the burden and reduce numbers. Applicants should also clearly articulate the anticipated impacts of the Center’s proposed work, both during the project period and beyond.

This funding opportunity aims to support high risk clinical trials for the development of in vivo high-resolution structural and functional imaging technologies for the living human inner ear. Proposed projects should focus on improving the resolution of current imaging techniques or developing new imaging techniques that can visualize inner ear structures in vivo with significantly greater detail and accuracy than currently possible. Structural and functional aspects, including visualizing dynamic elements, are important to developing new and improved techniques. Projects may also focus on developing new imaging probes or contrast agents that can enhance visualization of the inner ear structures. Research supported in response to this RFA is expected to significantly advance the ability to visualize auditory and vestibular components, such as hair cells, otoliths, membranes, ions, and vasculature, in detail in awake patients in a clinical setting using non-invasive techniques. To achieve this goal, a multidisciplinary team approach that takes advantage of the expertise of each team member is highly encouraged. Studies in humans must be proposed to develop,advance, or test the needed technology. Any intermediate studies must articulate a clear path of the proposed methodology to application in awake humans or define the limitations and the usefulness in anesthetized humans.

This funding opportunity aims to support the development of in vivo high-resolution structural and functional imaging technologies for the living human inner ear. Proposed projects should focus on improving the resolution of current imaging techniques or developing new imaging techniques that can visualize inner ear structures in vivo with significantly greater detail and accuracy than currently possible. Both structural and functional aspects, including visualizing dynamic elements are important to development of new and improved techniques. Projects may also focus on developing new imaging probes or contrast agents that can enhance visualization of the inner ear structures. Ultimately, research supported in response to this RFA is to encourage technologies that allow, for example, structures such as hair cells, otoliths, membranes, ions, and vasculature to be viewed in detail in awake patients in a clinical setting using non-invasive techniques. To achieve this goal, a multi-disciplinary team approach that takes advantage of the expertise of each team member is highly encouraged. Studies in humans and intermediate studies in animals, but not non-mammalian species, may be proposed to develop or advance the needed technology. Any intermediate studies must articulate a clear path of the proposed methodology to application in awake humans or define the limitations and the usefulness in anesthetized humans.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) encourages research on the biology of high-confidence risk factors associated with complex brain disorders, with a focus on the intracellular, transcellular, and circuit substrates of neural function. For the purposes of this NOFO, the term complex can refer to a multifactorial contribution to risk (e.g., polygenic and/or environmental) and/or highly distributed functional features of the brain disorder. Studies may be either hypothesis-generating (unbiased discovery) or hypothesis-testing in design and may utilize in vivo, in situ or in vitro experimental paradigms, e.g., model organisms or human cell-based assays. While behavioral paradigms and outcome measures can be incorporated into the research design to facilitate the characterization of intracellular, transcellular, and circuit mechanisms, these are neither required nor expected. Studies should not attempt to model disorders but instead should aim to elucidate the neurobiological impact of individual or combined risk factor(s), such as the affected molecular and cellular components and their relationships within defined biological process(es). This can include the fundamental biology of these factors, components, and processes. The resulting paradigms, component pathways, and biological processes should be disseminated with sufficient detail to enrich common and/or federated data resources (e.g., those contributing to the Gene Ontology, Synaptic Gene Ontology, FAIR Data Informatics) in order to bridge the gap between disease risk factors, biological mechanism and therapeutic target identification. The present NOFO (R01 activity code) can be used for applications to further develop lines of inquiry where feasibility or proof-of-concept has been established. Applicants proposing exploratory research at the early and conceptual stages of project development should apply to the companion R21 NOFO PAR-24-025

This initiative seeks to solicit applications for research projects that address the link between social disconnection including both objective social isolation as well as perceived social isolation (otherwise known as loneliness) and suicide in late-life. Emphasis is placed on research that identifies neurobiological and environmental mechanisms associated with social isolation and loneliness that increase risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior in late-life, that uses an experimental therapeutics approach to identify targets and develop and test interventions to prevent late-life suicide, and that develops new and modifies existing service delivery models to enhance social connection in late-life to prevent suicide.

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits applications for identification of small molecules that function to elucidate the biology of disease as chemical probes or function as agonists or antagonists of disease target(s) for therapy or immunotherapy. The NOFO is intended to support discovery research for the identification of validated hits relevant to health-related outcomes of participating NIH Institutes. Stages of discovery research covered by this NOFO include: 1) assay development for specific biological targets and disease mechanisms relevant to the mission of participating NIH Institutes with the intent to screen for small molecule compounds that show potential as probes for use in advancing knowledge about the known targets, identifying new targets, or as pre-therapeutic leads; 2) screen implementation high throughput target-focused approaches or moderate throughput phenotypic- and fragment-based approaches to identify initial screening hits; 3) hit validation, including implementation of secondary assays that are orthogonal to the primary assay, advanced cheminformatics analysis and initial medicinal chemistry inspection to prioritize the hit set, and follow-up assays to characterize mode and mechanism of action of the validated hits; 4) hit-to-lead optimization, including SAR to optimize target engagement, selectivity and to minimize chemical liabilities, ADME, PK and PD studies, and, if appropriate, in vivo modeling to test efficacy or biological effects.

The goal of this NOFO is to support doctoral candidates from a variety of academic disciplines for up to two years for the completion of the doctoral dissertation research project. Research projects should align with NIDA funding priorities detailed here (https://www.drugabuse.gov/funding/funding-priorities). This award will facilitate the entry of promising new investigators into the field of substance use/substance use disorder (SU(D) research, enhancing the pool of highly talented SU(D) researchers.