Alternatives to Limited Competition: NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program Research Education Grants Programs (R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

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 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 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 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 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 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites eligible academic or research institutions to apply for funding support to purchase latest scientific equipment that will enhance and modernize research-supporting operations of existing shared biomedical research facilities. Targeted are laboratory research core facilities, animal research facilities, and other similar shared-use research spaces. The goal of this NOFO is to strengthen research-auxiliary activities of biomedical research facilities and to enhance the efficiency of their operations. The NOFO does not support the purchase of scientific research instruments or their components, nor components of building-level infrastructure equipment that indirectly support research activities.

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The overarching goal of this NIDCD R25 program is to support educational activities that help recruit individuals with specific specialty or disciplinary backgrounds to research careers in biomedical, behavioral and clinical sciences.

NIGMS will support innovative educational activities designed to equip participants with technical, operational, or professional skills required for careers in the biomedical research workforce. Activities must be open to the broader biomedical research community and may focus on participants at one or more career stages from undergraduates to professionals (for example faculty, staff scientists). Funded programs will have a robust program leadership structure, participant recruitment plan, and evaluation and dissemination plans.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) encourages applications for investigator-initiated, early phase, clinical trials of natural products (i.e., botanicals, dietary supplements, and probiotics), which have a strong scientific premise to justify further clinical testing. For this NOFO, natural products include promising nutritional regimens that standardize the amount of a specific naturally occurring nutritional compound (e.g., omega-3 fatty acids, anthocyanidins, or polyphenols) and have compelling preliminary evidence. Under this NOFO, trials must be designed so that results, whether positive or negative, will provide information of high scientific utility and will support decisions about further development or testing of the natural product. This NOFO will provide up to 3 years support for studies to replicate the impact of the natural product on target engagement when used by humans, and assess whether there is an association between the degree of the impact on target engagement and functional or clinical outcomes in a patient population. Applications are encouraged to design studies to determine how to optimize the impact of the natural product on target engagement by optimizing the delivery of the natural product through examination of different doses or formulations. In addition, applications can be designed to combine the natural product with another treatment approach that is known to engage the same target; or study the impact of the natural product in a target population that is more responsive. Clinical trials submitted under this NOFO are expected to be hypothesis based, milestone-driven, and directly related to the research priorities and mission of NCCIH. This R33 funding mechanism is intended to accelerate the translation of emerging basic science findings about natural products into early-stage clinical testing to determine whether continued clinical research is warranted. This NOFO will not support efficacy or effectiveness trials, nor will

This announcement invites applications for basic research projects on chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and pesticides that have primary or secondary effects on the nervous system. Chemical threats are toxic compounds that could be used in a terrorist attack or accidentally released from industrial production, storage, or shipping. Projects supported by this NOFO are expected to generate data that elucidate mechanisms of toxicity of these agents, possible new manifestations of toxic exposures, and potential new targets for therapeutic development.

This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) invites applications for investigator-initiated clinical trials of complementary and integrative health approaches with physical and/or psychological therapeutic inputs (often called mind and body interventions) in NCCIH-designated areas of high research priority. Applications submitted under this NOFO are expected to propose a multisite feasibility clinical trial that will provide new information that is scientifically necessary for the planning and conduct of a subsequent clinical efficacy or effectiveness study, pragmatic trial, or dissemination and implementation trial within NCCIHs mission. NCCIH expects that applications to this NOFO will describe the planned future clinical trial and in so doing demonstrate that the proposed (R01) research is scientifically necessary to design or plan the subsequent fully powered, full-scale clinical trial. Under this R01, the data collected should be used to fill gaps in scientific knowledge, including, but not limited to the following: assessing whether the intervention can be delivered with fidelity across sites; demonstrating feasibility of recruitment, accrual, and randomization of participants across sites; demonstrating participant adherence to the intervention, as well as retention of participants throughout the study across sites; refining and assessing the feasibility of protocolized multimodal interventions, and/or demonstrating feasibility of data collection across sites in preparation for a future fully powered, multisite efficacy or effectiveness trial. The need for multisite feasibility trials is expected to be justified by sufficient preliminary data from previous single site feasibility or acceptability trial(s) or the published literature. The data collected should be used to fill gaps in scientific knowledge and be necessary to develop a competitive fully powered multisite clinical trial that has the potential to make a significant impact on public health.