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

The focus of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to produce insights into disease detection and prevention strategies, burden, severity, diagnostics, treatment, and outcomes of infectious diseases in international travelers. Timely surveillance and sentinel detection are essential for collecting actionable data. The research should:Address public health questions that improve the speed of outbreak detection.Help develop guidelines and recommendations to improve patient care.Enhance understanding of the natural history of disease.Optimize genomic surveillance as well as diagnostic and treatment strategies.Advance the global health security of the United States.This NOFO will have two components:Component A – Clinic-based sentinel network.Component B – Sentinel detection in international transportation hubs.You may apply for Component A, B, or both. If your application for both Component A and B is ranked top, Component B will be awarded.

The Genomics Research to Elucidate the Genetics of Rare Diseases:innovation (GREGoRi) initiative seeks to accelerate a paradigm shift in rare disease diagnosis by reimagining the tools, molecular technologies and analytical approaches used to identify the causal gene(s) and/or variant(s) underlying rare genetic disorders. The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity is to establish the GREGoRi Technology Integration Center, which will enable the development of standards and best practices for applying new and emerging molecular methods in rare disease diagnosis. A major deliverable of the Center will be a multidimensional dataset that can be used for the development and benchmarking of novel tools and strategies that facilitate rare disease diagnosis.

The overarching goal of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and its companion opportunities is to establish the Precision Medicine with AI: Integrating Imaging with Multimodal Data (PRIMED-AI) Program to support development of innovative, reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable multimodal AI-based clinical decision support (CDS) tools. PRIMED-AI CDS tools are based on the integration of clinical imaging with other types of multimodal health data to enhance care for patients with a wide range of health conditions. The PRIMED-AI Program seeks to catalyze the adoption of AI-based CDS tools into clinical workflows to enable novel personalized medicine strategies that address significant health challenges. The purpose of this NOFO is to solicit applications for the creation of a Validation Center to serve as a dedicated hub for the comprehensive evaluation and characterization of AI-enabled, image-based, multimodal CDS tools developed by the PRIMED-AI Consortium, to ensure these tools are reliable, reproducible, and generalizable. The Validation Center will focus on verification, validation, interoperability, and uncertainty quantification to comprehensively characterize performance of the CDS tools developed by the program. The core functions of the Validation Center will involve the systematic validation of PRIMED-AI Consortium deliverables, including those emerging from award recipients under the Playbook, Data-to-Model Academic-Industrial Partnerships, and Model-to-Clinic NOFOs.

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 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites a single cooperative agreement application for the Resource Center for the Cardiovascular Repository for Type 1 Diabetes (CaRe-T1D). The purpose of CaRe-T1D is to support innovative, discovery and mechanistic research through the study of human cardiovascular (CV) tissue. This research seeks to better understand cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 1 diabetes, highlight differences compared to type 2 diabetes, and ultimately guide the development of therapies to treat this major cause of morbidity and mortality for individuals with type 1 diabetes. To achieve these goals, the Resource Center will expand the CaRe-T1D biorepository of human CV tissue, further develop the data commons for data sharing and for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, coordinate the research activities of the investigative teams in the CaRe-T1D consortium, and make CaRe-T1D resources accessible to the broader research community. This NOFO is associated with the Special Diabetes Program (https://www.niddk.nih.gov/about-niddk/research-areas/diabetes/type-1-diabetes-special-statutory-funding-program/about-special-diabetes-program) which funds research on the prevention, treatment, and cure of type 1 diabetes and its complications, including unique, innovative, and collaborative research consortia and clinical trials networks.This is a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a Single Source that will invite application(s) from eligible organization(s) to apply. Please see Section III. Eligibility for additional information. In accordance with NIH standard peer-review processes, the application(s) will be peer-reviewed, and only meritorious application(s) will be considered for funding.

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits applications for research on developing a comprehensive and cohesive understanding of cancer metastasis. Towards this goal, the NCI will support U54 Specialized Centers that together will continue to serve as the hub of the Metastasis Research Network (MetNet). Each MetNet Center should propose an overarching scientific theme that will be pursued through two or three scientific inter- and multidisciplinary basic research projects. The projects should use integrative system level approaches to elucidate and integrate a mechanistic understanding of the non-linear, dynamic, and emergent processes in metastasis. Overarching themes should encompass the interplay between at least two central elements in the metastatic process such as early dissemination, cellular, soluble and/or physical microenvironment crosstalk, dormancy, or mechanisms of responses by metastatic cells to therapies. Studies on all types of cancer are welcome, including rare and pediatric metastatic cancers.Research proposed by MetNet Centers is expected to advance our understanding towards a more comprehensive appreciation of metastasis as a whole body, systems-level problem.

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications to support the validation of molecular/cellular/imaging markers (referred to as "markers" or "biomarkers") and assays for cancer detection, diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and prediction of response or resistance to treatment, as well as markers for cancer prevention and control. This FOA will support investigator-initiated research for both analytical, and clinical validation of assays to be used in cancer treatment, control, or prevention trials supported by the NCI. This NOFO will also support the validation of pharmacodynamic markers and markers of toxicity. Applicants should have assays that work on human samples and whose importance is well justified for development into clinical assays. As chemotherapies and/or radiation therapies are increasingly combined with immunotherapies to enhance the durability of anti-cancer responses, assays for measuring multiple markers, including immune markers, can be developed and validated simultaneously. The UH2 phase of this NOFO supports analytical validation of assays for these molecular/cellular/imaging markers, which must be achieved within 2 years before assays may undergo clinical validation. The UH3 phase of this NOFO supports clinical validation of analytically validated assays for up to 3 years using well-annotated biospecimens from retrospective or prospective clinical trials or studies. This NOFO may be used to validate existing assays for use in other cancer clinical trials, observational studies, or population studies. Efforts to harmonize clinical laboratory tests, including investigation into the performance and reproducibility of assays across multiple clinical laboratories, are also appropriate for this funding opportunity. Projects proposed for this NOFO will require multi-disciplinary collaboration among scientific investigators, oncologists, statisticians, and clinical laboratory scientist.

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to foster research that will inform and support the optimization, delivery, sustainability, and effectiveness of empirically-supported practices for addressing the mental health needs of older adults with serious mental illness (SMI). To this end, NIMH seeks applications that propose work that is focused on practice-relevant questions and conducted within and/or across settings where older adults with SMI are likely to be identified as needing care (e.g., primary care and geriatric specialty clinics, assisted living and long-term care facilities, and community centers). Applications may propose research related to adapting, optimizing, and implementing efficacious treatment and services interventions and strategies to improve clinical and functional outcomes among aging populations; examining mutable factors that impact fair and impartial mental health care access, utilization, quality, and outcomes and may serve as targets for intervention development for older adults with SMI; and developing and testing innovative treatment and service interventions that address barriers to accessing quality mental health care. Projects may also focus on systems-level factors and approaches for addressing SMI and improving access to evidence-based interventions in later life, such as evaluation of health system policies and practices, interventions that facilitate care transitions and continuity across settings, and strategies to improve care linkages and coordination across systems.

The purpose of the NCI Pathway to Independence Award for Early-Stage Postdoctoral Researchers (K99/R00) program is to increase and maintain a strong cohort of new and talented, NCI-supported, independent investigators. This program is designed for postdoctoral fellows with research and/or clinical doctoral degrees who do not require an extended period of mentored research training beyond their doctoral degrees. The objective of this award is to facilitate a timely transition of these fellows from their mentored, postdoctoral research positions to independent tenure-track (or equivalent) faculty positions. The program will provide independent NCI research support during this transition to help awardees to launch competitive, independent research careers. Researchers in the scientific areas of cancer control, cancer prevention and cancer data sciences are especially encouraged to work with their institutions to apply. This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is designed specifically for candidates proposing to serve as the lead investigator of an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or a separate ancillary clinical trial, as part of their research and career development. Those not planning an independent clinical trial, or proposing to gain research experience in a clinical trial led by another investigator, must apply to the 'Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed' companion NOFO (PAR-23-286).

The goal of this NOFO is to support doctoral candidates studying high-priority areas of child health for the completion of their doctoral dissertation research project. This NOFO seeks to advance research in child health by stimulating the use of Environmental Influences on Child Health (ECHO) Cohort data by doctoral students in relevant scientific areas. This RFA will provide students working on dissertations the opportunity to access the ECHO data within the NICHD Data and Specimen Hub (DASH) repository. ECHO"s DASH dataset integrates de-identified longitudinal data from more than 71,000 participants across the U.S. Prenatal and child exposure data include physical, chemical, social, behavioral, and biological factors. ECHO"s five primary pediatric outcome areas are pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes, upper and lower airway, obesity, neurodevelopment, and positive health. This award will facilitate the entry of promising new investigators into the field of early environmental exposures and child health research, enhancing the pool of highly talented researchers.