Department of Health and Human Services

Part 1. Overview Information

Participating Organization(s)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Components of Participating Organizations

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Note: Not all NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) participate in Announcements. Applicants should carefully note which ICOs participate in this announcement and view their respective areas of research interest at the ICO-Specific Scientific Interests website. ICOs that do not participate in this announcement will not consider applications for funding.

Funding Opportunity Title
Kidney Precision Medicine Project Recruitment Sites (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Activity Code

U01 Research Project – Cooperative Agreements

Announcement Type
Reissue of RFA-DK-20-026
Related Notices
Funding Opportunity Number (FON)
RFA-DK-27-301
Companion Funding Opportunity
RFA-DK-27-302 , U01 Research Project (Cooperative Agreements)
RFA-DK-27-303 , U24 Resource-Related Research Project (Cooperative Agreements)
Number of Applications

See Part 2, Section III. 3. Additional Information on Eligibility.

Assistance Listing Number(s)
93.847
Funding Opportunity Purpose

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requests applications for Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP) Recruitment Sites (RS) to enroll people with Acute Kidney Injuries (AKI) and/or Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) into a longitudinal biopsy cohort study. Under-enrolled populations (e.g., AKI) and comprehensive phenotyping remain priorities. New opportunities include clinical biopsies with residual tissue for research, enhanced physiologic phenotyping, repeat biopsies, pediatric recruitment, and collection of healthy reference tissue. All KPMP personnel will actively participate in scientific discovery and promote open science.

Funding Opportunity Goal(s)

To promote extramural biomedical research that improves the understanding of the mechanisms underlying disease and leads to improved preventions, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases. Specific programs areas of interest include: Studies of the pathophysiology and cell biology of the kidney and mechanisms of kidney injury repair. 

Key Dates

Posted Date
June 03, 2026
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date)
June 10, 2026
Application Due Dates Review and Award Cycles
New Renewal / Resubmission / Revision (as allowed) AIDS - New/Renewal/Resubmission/Revision, as allowed Scientific Merit Review Advisory Council Review Earliest Start Date
July 10, 2026 July 10, 2026 Not Applicable November 2026 January 2027 April 2027

All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. 

Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

No late applications will be accepted for this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

Due Dates for E.O. 12372

Not Applicable

Expiration Date
July 11, 2026
Required Application Instructions

It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in the Research (R) Instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide, except where instructed to do otherwise (in this NOFO or in a Notice from NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts).

Conformance to all requirements (both in the Application Guide and the NOFO) is required and strictly enforced. Applicants must read and follow all application instructions in the Application Guide as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV. When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions.

Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

There are several options available to submit your application through Grants.gov to NIH and Department of Health and Human Services partners. You must use one of these submission options to access the application forms for this opportunity.

  1. Use the NIH ASSIST system to prepare, submit and track your application online.
  2. Use an institutional system-to-system (S2S) solution to prepare and submit your application to Grants.gov and eRA Commons to track your application. Check with your institutional officials regarding availability.
  3. Use Grants.gov Workspace to prepare and submit your application and eRA Commons to track your application.

Part 2. Full Text of Announcement

Section I. Notice of Funding Opportunity Description

Background

Acute Kidney Injuries (AKI) and Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) impose a significant global health burden. Growing consensus suggests that different disease pathways lead to different subgroups of kidney disease. The Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP) was started in 2017 to ethically obtain and evaluate human kidney biopsies from people with AKI and CKD, create a kidney tissue atlas, define disease subgroups, and identify critical cells, pathways, and targets for novel therapies.

  • KPMP 1.0 (2017-2022) established common clinical and tissue interrogation protocols, launched a longitudinal AKI and CKD research biopsy cohort, and created a kidney atlas.
  • KPMP 2.0 (2022-2027) expanded the cohort and integrated clinical, histopathological, and multi-omic data to enrich the kidney atlas.
  • KPMP 3.0 (2027-2032) aims to discover and define new disease pathways and subgroups that enable precision clinical trials.

To meet the goals of KPMP 3.0, there will be three distinct, but highly interactive activities:

  1. Recruitment Sites (RS) will continue to enroll participants with AKI and/or CKD from various demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds into a longitudinal research biopsy cohort study. KPMP 3.0 will (re)emphasize AKI recruitment and comprehensive physiologic assessment. New opportunities will encourage clinical biopsies with residual tissue for research, enhanced phenotyping, repeat biopsies, pediatric recruitment, and collection of healthy reference tissue.
  2. Tissue Interrogation Sites (TIS) will use highly integrated multi-modal analytic pipelines to interrogate human kidney biopsy tissue.
  3. Central Hub (CH) will provide overall strategic vision and lead a unified KPMP-wide effort to discover and define new disease pathways and subgroups that enable precision clinical trials. The CH will also steward data management and sharing, advanced computational analyses, communication and outreach, and business operations to realize the goals of the KPMP.

The KPMP will hold ethical and participant safety considerations paramount and work closely with patient partners (e.g., patients serving as study investigators, KPMP research participants) to ensure that their viewpoints, priorities, and preferences are considered in all aspects of the KPMP. 

Research Objectives

To achieve the goals of KPMP 3.0, each RS will focus on two (2) objectives:

1. Recruitment and Retention

  • Identify and enroll 20 or more participants per year with AKI and/or CKD into the KPMP longitudinal biopsy cohort.

  • Broaden KPMP discovery opportunities by enrolling participants who are currently underrepresented in the cohort.

  • Safely and ethically conduct kidney biopsies for research (research only, clinical biopsy with an extra core for research, clinical biopsy with residual tissue shared with KPMP) on every enrolled participant following common KPMP protocols.

  • Implement comprehensive engagement and retention strategies to sustain participant involvement throughout the study.

2. Enhanced Phenotyping

  • Perform enhanced physiologic phenotyping of AKI and/or CKD participants that extends beyond current KPMP clinical protocols (https://www.kpmp.org/for-researchers#protocols) to accelerate discovery and definition of new disease pathways and subgroups that enable precision clinical trials.

Biopsy safety-related eligibility criteria have been determined by the KPMP Steering Committee (SC) and are subject to change based on evolving needs.

See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.

Section II. Award Information

Funding Instrument

Cooperative Agreement: A financial assistance mechanism used when there will be substantial Federal scientific or programmatic involvement. Substantial involvement means that, after award, NIH scientific or program staff will assist, guide, coordinate, or participate in project activities. See Section VI.2 for additional information about the substantial involvement for this NOFO.

Application Types Allowed
New
Renewal

The OER Glossary and the How to Apply Application Guide provide details on these application types. Only those application types listed here are allowed for this NOFO.

Clinical Trial?

Not Allowed: This NOFO only accepts applications that do not propose clinical trials. Note: Applications may propose activities involving human subjects that are not deemed clinical trials.

Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards

The number of awards is contingent upon NIH appropriations and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.

NIDDK intends to commit about $15,000,000 in fiscal year 2027 to support three related funding opportunities, RFA-DK-27-301, RFA-DK-27-302, and RFA-DK-27-303

NIDDK intends to fund approximately eight applications in response to RFA-DK-27-301.

Award Budget

The direct costs for each U01 award are expected to be approximately $450,000 per year. Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

Award Project Period

The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is 5 years. 

NIH grants policies as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement will apply to the applications submitted and awards made from this NOFO.

Section III. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants

Eligible Organizations

Higher Education Institutions - Includes all types

  • Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
  • Private Institutions of Higher Education

Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education

  • Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
  • Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)

For-Profit Organizations

  • Small Businesses
  • For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)

Local Governments

  • State Governments
  • County Governments
  • City or Township Governments
  • Special District Governments
  • Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
  • Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized).

Federal Governments

  • Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
  • U.S. Territory or Possession

Other

  • Independent School Districts
  • Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
  • Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
  • Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
  • Regional Organizations

Foreign Organizations/International Collaborations

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations) are not eligible to apply.

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.

Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed.

Required Registrations

Applicant Organizations

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain the following registrations as described in the How to Apply- Application Guide to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. Registration can take 6 weeks or more, so applicants should begin the registration process as soon as possible. Failure to complete registrations in advance of a due date is not a valid reason for a late submission, please reference the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 2.3.9.2 Electronically Submitted Applications for additional information.

  • System for Award Management (SAM) – Applicants must complete and maintain an active registration, which requires renewal at least annually. The renewal process may require as much time as the initial registration. SAM registration includes the assignment of a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code for domestic organizations which have not already been assigned a CAGE Code. Foreign organizations must obtain a NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code (in lieu of a CAGE code) in order to register in SAM.
    • Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)- A UEI is issued as part of the SAM.gov registration process. The same UEI must be used for all registrations, as well as on the grant application.
  • eRA Commons - Once the unique organization identifier is established, organizations can register with eRA Commons in tandem with completing their Grants.gov registrations; all registrations must be in place by time of submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.
  • Grants.gov – Applicants must have an active SAM registration in order to complete the Grants.gov registration.

Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s))

All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account.  PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons. If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.

All PD(s)/PI(s) must be registered with ORCID. The personal profile associated with the PD(s)/PI(s) eRA Commons account must be linked to a valid ORCID ID. For more information on linking an ORCID ID to an eRA Commons personal profile see the ORCID topic in our eRA Commons online help.

Eligible Individuals (Program Director/Principal Investigator)

Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with their organization to develop an application for support.

For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the How to Apply-Application Guide.

2. Cost Sharing

This NOFO does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 1.2 Definition of Terms.

3. Additional Information on Eligibility

Number of Applications

Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct.

The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time, per NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 2.3.7.4 Submission of Resubmission Application. This means that the NIH will not accept:

Section IV. Application and Submission Information

1. Requesting an Application Package

The application forms package specific to this opportunity must be accessed through ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace or an institutional system-to-system solution. Links to apply using ASSIST or Grants.gov Workspace are available in Part 1 of this NOFO. See your administrative office for instructions if you plan to use an institutional system-to-system solution.

2. Content and Form of Application Submission

It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in the Research (R) Instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide except where instructed in this notice of funding opportunity to do otherwise (in this NOFO, in a policy notice, or other notice from NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts). Conformance to the requirements in the Application Guide is required and strictly enforced. Applications that are out of compliance with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Page Limitations

All page limitations described in the How to Apply- Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed.

Instructions for Application Submission

The following section supplements the instructions found in the How to Apply- Application Guide and should be used for preparing an application to this NOFO.

SF424(R&R) Cover

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.

SF424(R&R) Project/Performance Site Locations

All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.

SF424(R&R) Other Project Information

All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.

Applicants are encouraged to contact the KPMP Central Hub (KPMP.org) to gather information about KPMP and NIDDK staff to discuss their application.

Proposals should be highly adaptable and capable of deploying staff where needed to accomplish tasks, meet milestones, and respond to evolving needs.

SF424(R&R) Senior/Key Person Profile

All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.

Projects proposed will need a multidisciplinary team (e.g., nephrologists, interventional radiologists/nephrologists, pathologists, researchers with experience partnering with diverse communities, research coordinators, and patient partners. Proposals should be highly adaptable and capable of deploying staff where needed to accomplish tasks, meet milestones, and respond to evolving needs. 

R&R or Modular Budget

All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.

  • Biopsy costs for all participants must be included in the budget. A cost of no more than $5,000 per biopsy is allowed. A letter of support from the institution accepting this cost cap is required.
  • Minimum Effort Requirements: The PD(s)/PI(s) must commit a combined minimum effort of 2.4 person-months (20%) per year.
  • Pathology Support: Applicants must include sufficient pathologist effort to actively participate in KPMP-wide adjudication of all biopsies and related activities.
  • Coordinator Support: Adequate research coordinator effort should be included to support IRB submissions, training, and protocol implementation for longitudinal follow-up.
  • Logistics: Applicants should arrange for all logistical services related to protocol-specific costs, including subcontracts and necessary supplies.
  • Steering Committee (SC) Participation: Budget support should be included for participation in all KPMP SC activities, including in-person meetings in the Washington, D.C. area, twice annually beginning Fall 2027. Travel costs for a minimum of two patient partners, including lodging and per diem, must be included.
  • Tissue Interrogation, Genome Sequencing, and Biosample Analysis: The interrogation of biopsy tissue will be conducted by the TIS and should not be included in the applicant's budget. Genome sequencing and biosample (blood, urine, stool) based assays and analyses will be conducted through the CH and should not be included in the applicant's budget.

R&R Subaward Budget

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.

PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.

PHS 398 Research Plan

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions:

Do not consider this to be a traditional application for hypothesis-driven research. This section should provide a vision and plan to achieve the two (2) Research Objectives of the RS.

1. Recruitment and Retention

Describe plans to recruit and retain 20 or more participants per year into the longitudinal KPMP cohort. Provide an overview of the team structure, leadership, and personnel responsible for the day-to-day execution of key recruitment and retention functions, while maintaining high safety standards. Outline expected outcomes, time-driven milestones, evaluation metrics, and plans for implementing corrective actions. Specific elements to consider include, but are not limited to:

  • Specify the site's intention to participate as AKI only, AKI and CKD, or CKD only.
  • Provide clear strategies to ensure participant diversity in terms of demographic, socioeconomic status, geographic background, and other factors.
  • Participant inclusion should consider current criteria, such as individuals with hypertension-attributed or diabetic kidney disease but may also include those not previously enrolled in KPMP (https://www.kpmp.org/for-researchers#protocols). Describe the rationale for including each new population and ethical considerations regarding the collection of kidney biopsies for research. New populations may include, but are not limited to: 
    • individuals with early-stage CKD (e.g., eGFR > 60 ml/min/1.73m² with evidence of declining kidney function),
    • children with AKI and/or CKD,
    • individuals undergoing clinically indicated biopsies (excluding suspected overt glomerulonephritis),
    • healthy reference tissue with minimal ischemia (e.g., altruistic kidney donation, living donor biopsies, or nephrectomy tissue obtained prior to vascular clamping).
  • Provide annual recruitment plans per population with justification based on the size and characteristics of the available population, anticipated recruitment and biopsy rates, and proposed depth of clinical and physiologic phenotyping (see Enhanced Phenotyping objective below).
  • Describe approaches for effective use of electronic health record (EHR) systems for identifying potential participants.
  • Describe a plan to extract EHR data for KPMP participants, transform into KPMP common data model, and submit to the CH.
  • Outline plans for continual monitoring (e.g., wearables) and adaptive retention measures to ensure long-term participant engagement.
  • Describe plans to recruit and retain highly qualified research coordinators throughout the award and during critical transition periods.
  • Describe plans to engage KPMP participants in discussions about repeat (second) biopsies. Propose potential repeat biopsy recruitment targets.
  • If applicable, describe plans to recruit participants from other longitudinal cohort studies (e.g. Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort, CRIC; Chronic Kidney Disease in Children, CKiD; Multi-Omics for Health and Disease, MOHD). Propose feasible recruitment targets.
  • Provide documentation of early involvement with your local IRB for research use of kidney biopsy tissue (e.g., clinical biopsies with residual tissue used for research), including a letter from the local IRB expressing willingness to rely on the KPMP single IRB.
  • Include a commitment letter from the Department of Radiology (or other appropriate Department) for biopsy suite time and effort to match proposed recruitment targets per proposed timeline.

Biopsy considerations:

  • If clinically indicated biopsies are proposed, applicants must 1) specify the approach and rationale to either obtain an additional core for research or sharing of unused tissue of sufficient quality and volume for KPMP tissue interrogation and 2) provide assurance of their ability to collect and share the unused or extra research tissue with the KPMP. Include a letter of support from the institution's Department of Pathology.
  • Include co-investigators knowledgeable and skilled in kidney biopsy. These individuals should have an exceptional safety record. Include statistics regarding complications from kidney biopsies they have performed.
  • Participating medical centers must not charge participants or their insurance company for costs associated with research kidney biopsies or medical care to treat complications related to research kidney biopsies. 

While proposals for scientifically justified additional populations are encouraged, final inclusion/exclusion criteria and participant distribution will be determined by the KPMP SC. Applicants must indicate their willingness to comply with the final KPMP study protocol–developed in partnership with the SC–as well as all related policies, goals, and procedures (https://www.kpmp.org/for-researchers#protocols).

2. Enhanced Phenotyping

A key objective is to provide deep phenotyping of all KPMP participants to facilitate discovery and definition of new disease pathways and subgroups that enable precision clinical trials. Describe a plan to perform enhanced physiologic phenotyping – that extends beyond current KPMP clinical protocols (https://www.kpmp.org/for-researchers#protocols) – and can be implemented across multiple KPMP sites in 2028. Outline team structure, leadership, and personnel responsible for the day-to-day execution of phenotyping activities, ensuring adherence to high-quality standards. Include anticipated outcomes, milestones, timelines, and mitigation plans to address potential challenges in data collection, sharing, standardization, and general availability of specialized equipment. Specific elements to consider include, but are not limited to:

  • Provide a clear rationale for each proposed measure and how it will accelerate the discovery and definition of new disease pathways and subgroups that enable precision clinical trials.
  • Describe how many participants will be measured and how they will be selected. It is recognized that not all measures will be performed on all participants. Provide robust preliminary data supporting the potential implementation of each measure across multiple KPMP sites in 2028.   
  • Potential measures and methods of interest include, but are not limited to:
    • Measures of renal functional reserve (e.g., oral protein load with a wearable transdermal GFR or creatinine clearance-based assessment). These approaches can be applied in both CKD and AKI, potentially at two time points in AKI (e.g., time of injury and post-recovery).
    • Dynamic assessments of tubular function, including physiologic stress tests such as the furosemide, acid load, or other.
    • Tubular clearance measurements using endogenous and/or exogenous markers (e.g., furosemide or other novel indicators).
    • Novel imaging techniques, that may include functional and/or stress test components or other relevant modalities.
    • Assessments of glomerular permselectivity using either endogenous or exogenous markers.
    • Retinal imaging techniques such as optical coherence tomography with angiography.

Each applicant is expected to propose and budget for clinical and physiologic phenotyping, though adoption of the proposed measure(s) is not guaranteed. It is not expected that all enhanced phenotyping measures will be done on all participants. Final phenotyping decisions will be made by the KPMP SC. Awardees may need to reallocate funds and personnel post-award to implement the final common protocol, following NIH policies for post-award grants management.  

Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the How to Apply - Application Guide.

 Other Plan(s): 

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions:

  • A Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan) is required for any NIH-funded or conducted research that will generate scientific data. Applicants must submit the DMS Plan at the time of application using the NIH DMS Plan Format Page. The DMS Plan must address the elements in the structured format. Where the DMS Plan Format Page requires a "Yes or No" response, no additional narrative is allowed. 

Appendix: Only limited Appendix materials are allowed. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the How to Apply - Application Guide.

  • No publications or other material, with the exception of blank questionnaires or blank surveys, may be included in the Appendix.

PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information

When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials (and when applicable, clinical trials research experience) follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the How to Apply- Application Guide, with the following additional instructions:

If you answered "Yes" to the question "Are Human Subjects Involved?" on the R&R Other Project Information form, you must include at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or Delayed Onset Study record.

Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.

Delayed Onset Study

Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start). All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.

PHS Assignment Request Form

All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.

3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)

See Part 2. Section III.1 for information regarding the requirement for obtaining a unique entity identifier and for completing and maintaining active registrations in System for Award Management (SAM), NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code (if applicable), eRA Commons, and Grants.gov

4. Submission Dates and Times

Part I. contains information about Key Dates and times. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications before the due date to ensure they have time to make any application corrections that might be necessary for successful submission. When a submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.

Organizations must submit applications to Grants.gov (the online portal to find and apply for grants across all Federal agencies). Applicants must then complete the submission process by tracking the status of the application in the eRA Commons, NIH's electronic system for grants administration. NIH and Grants.gov systems check the application against many of the application instructions upon submission. Errors must be corrected and a changed/corrected application must be submitted to Grants.gov on or before the application due date and time.  If a Changed/Corrected application is submitted after the deadline, the application will be considered late. Applications that miss the due date and time are subjected to the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 2.3.9.2 Electronically Submitted Applications.

Applicants are responsible for viewing their application before the due date in the eRA Commons to ensure accurate and successful submission.

Information on the submission process and a definition of on-time submission are provided in the How to Apply-Application Guide.

5. Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372)

This initiative is not subject to intergovernmental review.

6. Funding Restrictions

All NIH awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Pre-award costs are allowable only as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 7.9.1 Selected Items of Cost.

7. Other Submission Requirements and Information

Applications must be submitted electronically following the instructions described in the  How to Apply – Application Guide. Paper applications will not be accepted.

Applicants must complete all required registrations before the application due date. Section III. Eligibility Information contains information about registration.

For assistance with your electronic application or for more information on the electronic submission process, visit How to Apply – Application Guide. If you encounter a system issue beyond your control that threatens your ability to complete the submission process on-time, you must follow the Dealing with System Issues guidance. For assistance with application submission, contact the Application Submission Contacts in Section VII.

Important reminders:

All PD(s)/PI(s) must include their eRA Commons ID in the Credential field of the Senior/Key Person Profile form. Failure to register in the Commons and to include a valid PD/PI Commons ID in the credential field will prevent the successful submission of an electronic application to NIH. See Section III of this NOFO for information on registration requirements.

The applicant organization must ensure that the unique entity identifier provided on the application is the same identifier used in the organization's profile in the eRA Commons and for the System for Award Management. Additional information may be found in the  How to Apply – Application Guide.

See more tips for avoiding common errors.

Upon receipt, applications will be evaluated for completeness and compliance with application instructions by the Center for Scientific Review and responsiveness by components of participating organizations, NIH. Applications that are incomplete, non-compliant and/or nonresponsive will not be reviewed. 

Mandatory Disclosure

Recipients or subrecipients must submit any information related to violations of federal criminal law involving fraud, bribery, or gratuity violations potentially affecting the federal award. See Mandatory Disclosures, 2 CFR 200.113 and NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 4.1.35.

Send written disclosures to the NIH Chief Grants Management Officer listed on the Notice of Award for the IC that funded the award and to the HHS Office of Inspector Grant Self Disclosure Program at grantdisclosures@oig.hhs.gov.

Post Submission Materials

Applicants are required to follow the instructions for post-submission materials, as described in the policy

Any instructions provided here are in addition to the instructions in the policy.

Section V. Application Review Information

1. Criteria

Only the review criteria described below will be considered in the review process. Applications submitted to the NIH in support of the NIH mission are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through the NIH peer review system.

This NOFO requests applications for Recruitment Sites (RS) to enroll patients with acute kidney injuries (AKI) and/or chronic kidney diseases (CKD), from varied demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds reflective of the kidney disease population, into a longitudinal cohort study and perform protocol-based research kidney biopsies and enhanced clinical and physiologic phenotyping.

Overall Impact

Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following scored review criteria and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed). An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have a major scientific impact.

Scored Review Criteria

Reviewers will consider Factors 1, 2 and 3 in the determination of scientific merit, and in providing an overall impact score. In addition, Factors 1 and 2 will each receive a separate factor score. 

 

Significance

  • Evaluate the importance of the proposed research in the context of current scientific challenges and opportunities, either for advancing knowledge within the field, or more broadly. Assess whether the application addresses an important gap in knowledge in the field, would solve a critical problem, or create a valuable conceptual or technical advance.
  • Evaluate the rationale for undertaking the study, the rigor of the scientific background for the work (e.g., prior literature and/or preliminary data) and whether the scientific background justifies the proposed study.

Innovation

  • Evaluate the extent to which innovation influences the importance of undertaking the proposed research. Note that while technical or conceptual innovation can influence the importance of the proposed research, a project that is not applying novel concepts or approaches may be of critical importance for the field.
  • Evaluate whether the proposed work applies novel concepts, methods or technologies or uses existing concepts, methods, technologies in novel ways, to enhance the overall impact of the project.

Specific to this NOFO: 

  • Evaluate if the proposal addresses potential gaps in the existing KPMP cohort and enhances opportunities for discovery and definition of new disease pathways and subgroups to enable precision clinical trials. 
  • Evaluate if the applicant proposes enhanced phenotyping strategies that are feasible in a multi-site study and that will accelerate discovery.

 

Approach

  • Evaluate the scientific quality of the proposed work. Evaluate the likelihood that compelling, reproducible findings will result (rigor) and assess whether the proposed studies can be done well and within the timeframes proposed (feasibility).

Rigor:

  • Evaluate the potential to produce unbiased, reproducible, robust data.
  • Evaluate the rigor of experimental design and whether appropriate controls are in place.
  • Evaluate whether the sample size is sufficient and well-justified.
  • Assess the quality of the plans for analysis, interpretation, and reporting of results.
  • Evaluate whether the investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex or age, in the design, analysis, and reporting.
  • For applications involving human subjects or vertebrate animals, also evaluate:
    • the rigor of the intervention or study manipulation (if applicable to the study design).
    • whether outcome variables are justified.
    • whether the results will be generalizable or, in the case of a rare disease/special group, relevant to the particular subgroup.
    • whether the study population appropriately models the target population.
  • For applications involving human subjects, including clinical trials, assess the adequacy of inclusion plans as appropriate for the scientific goals of the research. Considerations of appropriateness may include disease/condition/behavior incidence, prevalence, or population burden, population representation, and/or current state of the science.

Feasibility:

  • Evaluate whether the proposed approach is sound and achievable, including plans to address problems or new challenges that emerge in the work. For proposed studies in which feasibility may be less certain, evaluate whether the uncertainty is balanced by the potential for major advances.
  • For applications involving human subjects, including clinical trials, evaluate the adequacy and feasibility of the plan to recruit and retain a study population that appropriately models the target population. Additionally, evaluate the likelihood of successfully achieving the proposed enrollment based on age, race, ethnicity, and sex.
  • For clinical trial applications, evaluate whether the study timeline and milestones are feasible.

Specific to this NOFO: 

  • Evaluate if the applicant provides evidence of the feasibility of the proposed research plan to identify and enroll the targeted number of participants, obtain high-quality research kidney biopsies, conduct detailed clinical and physiologic phenotyping, ensure participant safety, minimize risk, and adhere to the highest ethical, research, and clinical standards.

 

Investigator(s)

Evaluate whether the investigator(s) have demonstrated background, training, and expertise, as appropriate for their career stage, to conduct the proposed work. For Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) applications, assess the quality of the leadership plan to facilitate coordination and collaboration.

Environment

Evaluate whether the institutional resources are appropriate to ensure the successful execution of the proposed work.

Specific to this NOFO: 

Investigators: Evaluate if the applicant demonstrates the expertise and experience of the investigators in safely obtaining kidney biopsy tissue for research purposes.

Environment: Evaluate if the institution ensures adequate biopsy suite time to match proposed recruitment targets per proposed timeline.


Additional Review Criteria

As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider the following additional items while determining scientific and technical merit, but will not give criterion scores for these items, and should consider them in providing an overall impact score.

 

For research that involves human subjects but does not involve one of the categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, evaluate the justification for involvement of human subjects and the proposed protections from research risk relating to their participation according to the following five review criteria: 1) risk to subjects; 2) adequacy of protection against risks; 3) potential benefits to the subjects and others; 4) importance of the knowledge to be gained; and 5) data and safety monitoring for clinical trials.

For research that involves human subjects and meets the criteria for one or more of the categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, evaluate: 1) the justification for the exemption; 2) human subjects involvement and characteristics; and 3) sources of materials. For additional information on review of the Human Subjects section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Human Subjects.

This NOFO only accepts applications that do not propose clinical trials. Note: Applications may propose activities involving human subjects that are not deemed clinical trials.


 

When the proposed research includes Vertebrate Animals, evaluate the involvement of live vertebrate animals according to the following criteria: (1) description of proposed procedures involving animals, including species, strains, ages, sex, and total number to be used; (2) justifications for the use of animals versus alternative models and for the appropriateness of the species proposed; (3) interventions to minimize discomfort, distress, pain and injury; and (4) justification for euthanasia method if NOT consistent with the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. For additional information on review of the Vertebrate Animals section, please refer to the Worksheet for Review of the Vertebrate Animals Section.


 

When the proposed research includes Biohazards, evaluate whether specific materials or procedures that will be used are significantly hazardous to research personnel and/or the environment, and whether adequate protection is proposed.


 

As applicable, evaluate the full application as now presented.


 

As applicable, evaluate the progress made in the last funding period.


 

As applicable, evaluate the appropriateness of the proposed expansion of the scope of the project.


Additional Review Considerations

As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider each of the following items, but will not give scores for these items, and should not consider them in providing an overall impact score.

 

For projects involving key biological and/or chemical resources, evaluate the brief plans proposed for identifying and ensuring the validity of those resources.


 

Evaluate whether the budget and the requested period of support are fully justified and reasonable in relation to the proposed research.


2. Review and Selection Process

Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s), convened by CSR, in accordance with NIH peer review policies and practices, using the stated review criteria. Assignment to a Scientific Review Group will be shown in the eRA Commons.

As part of the scientific peer review, all applications will receive a written critique.

Applications may undergo a selection process in which only those applications deemed to have the highest scientific and technical merit (generally the top half of applications under review) will be discussed and assigned an overall impact score.

Requests for reconsideration of initial peer review will not be accepted for applications submitted in response to this NOFO. 

Applications will be assigned to the appropriate NIH Institute or Center. Applications will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications submitted in response to this NOFO. Following initial peer review, recommended applications will receive a second level of review by the National Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council. The following will be considered in making funding decisions:

  • Scientific and technical merit of the proposed project as determined by scientific peer review.
  • Availability of funds.
  • Relevance of the proposed project to program priorities.

If the application is under consideration for funding, NIH will request "just-in-time" information from the applicant as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 2.5.1. Just-in-Time Procedures. This request is not a Notice of Award nor should it be construed to be an indicator of possible funding.

Prior to making an award, NIH reviews an applicant's federal award history in SAM.gov to ensure sound business practices. An applicant can review and comment on any information in the Responsibility/Qualification records available in SAM.gov. NIH will consider any comments by the applicant in the Responsibility/Qualification records in SAM.gov to ascertain the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and performance record of managing Federal awards per 2 CFR Part 200.206 "Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants." This provision will apply to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements except fellowships.

3. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

After the peer review of the application is completed, the PD/PI will be able to access his or her Summary Statement (written critique) via the eRA Commons. Refer to Part 1 for dates for peer review, advisory council review, and earliest start date.

Information regarding the disposition of applications is available in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 2.4.4 Disposition of Applications.

Section VI. Award Administration Information

1. Award Notices

A Notice of Award (NoA) is the official authorizing document notifying the applicant that an award has been made and that funds may be requested from the designated HHS payment system or office. The NoA is signed by the Grants Management Officer and emailed to the recipient's business official.

In accepting the award, the recipient agrees that any activities under the award are subject to all provisions currently in effect or implemented during the period of the award, other Department regulations and policies in effect at the time of the award, and applicable statutory provisions.

Recipients must comply with any funding restrictions described in Section IV.6. Funding Restrictions. Any pre-award costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the applicant's own risk.  For more information on the Notice of Award, please refer to the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 5. The Notice of Award and NIH Grants & Funding website, see Award Process.

Institutional Review Board or Independent Ethics Committee Approval: Recipient institutions must ensure that protocols are reviewed by their IRB or IEC. To help ensure the safety of participants enrolled in NIH-funded studies, the recipient must provide NIH copies of documents related to all major changes in the status of ongoing protocols.

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

The following Federal wide and HHS-specific policy requirements apply to awards funded through NIH:

All federal statutes and regulations relevant to federal financial assistance, including those highlighted in NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 4 Public Policy Requirements, Objectives and Other Appropriation Mandates.

By applying for or accepting federal funds from HHS, recipients certify compliance with all federal antidiscrimination laws and these requirements and that complying with those laws is a material condition of receiving federal funding streams. Recipients are responsible for ensuring subrecipients, contractors, and partners also comply.

Applicants and recipients are strongly encouraged to refer to the NIH Director's Statement of Priorities, entitled "Advancing NIH's Mission Through a Unified Strategy." 

Recipients are responsible for ensuring that their activities comply with all applicable federal regulations. Pursuant to 2 CFR 200.340, by accepting an NIH award, the recipient agrees that continued funding for the award is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds, recipient satisfactory performance, compliance with the Terms and Conditions of the award, and may also otherwise be terminated, to the extent authorized by law, if the agency determines that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities, in line with 2 CFR 200.340(a)(4).

Pursuant to the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, Div. N, § 405, Pub. Law 114-113, 6 USC § 1533(d), the HHS Secretary has established a common set of voluntary, consensus-based, and industry-led guidelines, best practices, methodologies, procedures, and processes.

Successful recipients under this NOFO agree that:

When recipients, subrecipients, or third-party entities have:

  • ongoing and consistent access to HHS owned or operated information or operational technology systems; and
  • receive, maintain, transmit, store, access, exchange, process, or utilize personal identifiable information (PII) or personal health information (PHI) obtained from the awarding HHS agency for the purposes of executing the award.

Cybersecurity plans and procedures must at minimum include the following:

  • Develop cybersecurity plans and procedures, modeled after the NIST Cybersecurity framework, to protect HHS systems and data:
    • Identify:
      • Develop an inventory of all assets and accounts with access to HHS owned and operated information or operational technology systems or which obtain PII or PHI for the purposes of the award.
    • Protect:
      • Limit access to HHS owned and operated systems to only those in need of access to complete reward activities.
      • Require all staff to complete annual cybersecurity and privacy awareness training. Visit 405(d): Knowledge on Demand (hhs.gov) to obtain free trainings, if needed.
      • Enable multifactor authentication for all employees, subrecipients, and third-party entities to access HHS owned and operated information or operational technology systems.
      • Regularly backup sensitive data and test backups.
    • Detect:
      • Install anti-virus or anti-malware software on all devices, servers, and accounts used to connect to HHS owned and operated systems.
    • Respond:
      • Develop an incident response plan. See Incident-Response-Plan-Basics_508c.pdf (cisa.gov) to learn about developing incident response plans.
      • Have cybersecurity incident reporting procedures that ensure the relevant HHS awarding agencies are notified of a cybersecurity incident within 48 hours of discovery. A cybersecurity incident is defined as an unplanned interruption to a technology service or reduction in the quality of a technology service, or an occurrence that actually or potentially jeopardizes the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of an information system or the information the system processes, stores, or transmits.
    • Recover:
      • Investigate incidents and plug any security gaps identified. 

All activities proposed in your application and budget narrative must align with applicable law, including but not limited to statutes, executive orders, federal regulations and applicable judicial holdings.  Accordingly, discretionary awards shall not be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate; racial preferences or other forms of racial discrimination by the recipient, including activities where race or intentional proxies for race will be used as a selection criterion for employment or program participation; denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans, or the belief that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic; illegal immigration; or any other initiatives that compromise public safety.  If an application does not align, the application will not receive funding to the extent permitted by law and applicable court orders.

For applications involving substance abuse, the application must not support harm reduction. Please see Updated Funding Guidance for Recipients on Supplies and Services.

For applications involving funding Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) or medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), this funding should be used to provide comprehensive treatment and recovery support services rather than medication-only models for opioid use disorder. Services should include medications, where clinically indicated, in conjunction with psychosocial and other treatment and recovery support services. Funding can also be used to support individualized tapering and discontinuation of medications when clinically indicated. Please see Updated Funding Guidance for Recipients on  MAT/MOUD.

As of October 1, 2025, HHS has adopted 2 CFR Part 200, with some modifications included in 2 CFR Part 300. These regulations replace those in 45 CFR Part 75. However, for NIH, under the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2026, (P.L. 119-75, Division B, Title II, Sec. 224), the provisions relating to indirect costs in 45 CFR 75 continue to apply to NIH awards. Consistent with the statute, NIH will not apply updated thresholds outlined within 2 CFR Part 200, at this time.

Cooperative Agreement Terms and Conditions of Award

The following special terms of award are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) administrative guidelines, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant administration regulations at 45 CFR Part 75, and other HHS, PHS, and NIH grant administration policies. 

The administrative and funding instrument used for this program will be the cooperative agreement, an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an "acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial NIH programmatic involvement with the recipients is anticipated during the performance of the activities. Under the cooperative agreement, the NIH purpose is to support and stimulate the recipients' activities by involvement in and otherwise working jointly with the award recipients in a partnership role; it is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the activities. Consistent with this concept, the dominant role and prime responsibility resides with the recipients for the project as a whole, although specific tasks and activities may be shared among the recipients and the NIH as defined below.

The Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) will have the primary responsibility for:

1. Developing the research design and study protocol, including definition of objectives and approaches, planning, conducting, sample size and power calculations, and establishing procedures for participant recruitment and follow-up, data collection, quality control, interim data and safety monitoring, final data analysis, interpretation, conclusions of studies, and publication of results under the terms and conditions of the cooperative agreement award.

2.The Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) will assume responsibility and accountability to the applicant organization officials and to the NIH for the performance and proper conduct of the research supported under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (NOFO) in accordance with the terms and conditions of award, as well as all pertinent laws, regulations and policies.

3. Recipient(s) will retain custody of and have primary rights to the data and software developed under these awards, subject to Government policies regarding rights of access consistent with current DHHS, PHS, and NIH policies.

4. Recipients are responsible for their staff in maintaining confidentiality of the information as developed by the network/consortium, including, without limitation, study protocols, data analysis, conclusions, etc. per policies approved by the participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators and the NIH, and/or Steering Committee (SC) as well as any confidential information received by third party collaborators.

5. Recipient(s) will be required to participate in a cooperative and interactive manner with members of the network/consortium including designated NIH staff (e.g., Program Official, Project Scientist, Project Coordinator).

6. Recipient(s) agree to establish agreements amongst themselves that address the following issues: (1) procedures for data sharing among network/consortium members and data sharing with industry partners; (2) procedures for safeguarding confidential information, including without limitation, any data generated by the network/consortium as well as information and/or data received from external collaborators; (3) procedures for addressing ownership of intellectual property that result from aggregate multi-party data; (4) procedures for sharing bio-specimens under an overarching Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) amongst network/consortium members that operationalizes material transfer in an efficient and expeditious manner; (5) procedures for reviewing publications, determining authorship, and industry access to publications.

Recipients must serve on Subcommittees as needed. Subcommittees will report progress at Steering Committee Meetings and/or lead discussions at the Semi-Annual Investigator Meeting.

7. The Program Directors/Principal Investigators (for any multi-Center studies involving multiple protocols) shall designate a single Protocol Chairperson (if the Program Director/Principal Investigator does not assume this role) for each protocol to be carried out by the study group or collaborating Centers. The Protocol Chairperson shall function as the scientific coordinator for the common protocol and shall assume responsibility for obtaining approval to implement the common protocol from the participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators or Steering Committee and for developing and monitoring the protocol. Significant modifications to approved protocols must be approved by the participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators or Steering Committee.

8. Implementing generation and collection of data specified by a common study protocol and ensure that data will be submitted expeditiously to the Central Hub Data Coordinating Center  (U24). 

9. Establishing and following procedures for data quality, completeness, and security. Recipients are responsible for ensuring accurate and timely assessment of the progress of each study, including development of procedures to ensure that data collection and management are: (1) adequate for quality control and analysis;  and (2) sufficiently staffed across the participating institutions. For research involving multiple sites, a plan for analysis of pooled data will be developed by the participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators in consultation with NIDDK Staff or with the Steering Committee if applicable.

10. Any third-party collaboration (including but not limited to interactions with organizations from industry, academia, and nonprofit institutions) should be governed by a research collaboration agreement (e.g., Clinical Trial Agreement, Research Collaborative Agreement, etc.) or any third-party contract mechanism(s) with terms that ensure the collaboration is conducted in accordance with the Cooperative Agreement, applicable NIH/NIDDK policies and procedures, and network/consortium policies, and with written approval from NIDDK Program staff. Any relevant proposed third-party agreements related to the network/consortium studies between grantee and third-party will be provided to the NIDDK Program staff and NIDDK Technology Advancement Office for review, comment, and approval to assure compliance with NIH/NIDDK policies and network/consortium policies. Further, at the request of the NIDDK Program staff, any other network/consortium-relevant third-party agreements must be shared with NIDDK. Failure to comply with this term may prompt action in accordance with NIH Grants Policy Statement, Section 8.5 titled: "Special Award Conditions and Remedies for Noncompliance (Special Award Conditions and Enforcement Actions)", and Section 8.5.2, titled: "Remedies for Noncompliance or Enforcement Actions: Suspension, Termination, and Withholding Support", noncompliance with the terms and conditions of award will be considered by the funding IC for future funding and support decisions and may result in termination of the award."

11. Any involvement of a third-party (including but not limited to industry, academia, and nonprofit institutions) in the study and network/consortium activities that includes access to any network/consortium generated resources (i.e., data and bio-samples), or study results that are not publicly available, or using the name of the network/consortium or study or the name of the NIH or NIDDK, is permitted only after written permission by the NIDDK Program staff who will consult with others at NIH and NIDDK Technology Advancement Office.

12. Recipients must agree to comply with the processes and goals as delineated within the NOFO.

13. Recipients must share data, materials, models, methods, information and unique research resources that are generated by the projects in concordance with Network/Consortium policies in order to facilitate progress. When appropriate, and in accordance with NIH policies, as well as NIDDK policies, Recipients will be expected to collaborate; share novel reagents, biomaterials, methods and models and resources; and share both positive and negative results that would help guide the research activities of other members.

NIH staff have substantial programmatic involvement that is above and beyond the normal stewardship role in awards, as described below:

The NIDDK will designate program staff, including a Program Official and a Grants Management Specialist to provide normal program stewardship and administrative oversight of the cooperative agreement. The Program Official and Grants Management Specialist will be named in the Notice of Grant Award (NOA).

An NIDDK Project Scientist/Project Coordinator with substantial involvement above and beyond the normal stewardship of an NIH IC Program Official will:   

1. Serve as the contact point for all facets of the scientific interaction with the recipient (s). As required for the coordination of activities and to expedite progress, NIDDK may designate additional NIDDK staff to provide advice to the recipient on specific scientific and/or analytic issues. 

2. Work with participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators or participate in the Steering Committee to:serve as a resource to study investigators with respect to other ongoing NIDDK activities that may be relevant to the study to facilitate compatibility with the NIDDK missions and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.

3. Have substantial involvement assisting in the design and coordination of research activities for recipients as elaborated below:

a. Assisting by providing advice in the management and technical performance of the investigations, coordinating required regulatory clearances for investigational agents used in the study, which are held by NIDDK. The NIDDK may reserve the right to cross file or independently file an Investigational New Drug Application or an Investigational Device Exemption form with the FDA.

b. Coordinate activities among recipients by assisting in the design, development, and coordination of a common research or clinical protocol and statistical evaluations of data; in the preparation of questionnaires and other data recording forms; and in the publication of results.

c. Review procedures for assessing data quality and study performance monitoring.

d. Provide advice in the management and technical performance of the investigations

e. The NIDDK Project Scientist or Project Coordinator may be co-authors on study publications. In general, to warrant co-authorship, NIDDK staff must have contributed to the following areas: (a) design of the concepts or experiments being tested; (b) performance of significant portions of the activity; (c) participation in analysis and interpretation of study results and (d) preparation and authorship of pertinent manuscripts.

The NIDDK Program Official(s) identified in the Notice of Award will:

  1. Interact with the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) on a regular basis to monitor study progress. Monitoring may include: regular communications with the Program Director/Principal Investigator and staff, periodic site visits, observation of field data collection and management techniques, quality control, fiscal review, and other relevant matters; as well as attendance at calls of the participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators or Steering Committee, Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) or Observational Study Monitoring Board (OSMB), if applicable; and related meetings. The NIDDK retains, as an option, periodic review of progress by researchers not involved with the study.
  2. Review and approve protocols prior to implementation to ensure they are within the scope of peer review and for safety considerations, as required by federal regulations.
  3. The NIDDK Program Official will monitor protocol progress, and may request that a protocol study be closed to accrual for reasons including: (a) accrual rate insufficient to complete study in a timely fashion; (b) accrual goals met early; (c) poor protocol performance; (d) patient/participant safety and regulatory concerns; (e) study results that are already conclusive; (f) low likelihood of showing a benefit of the intervention (futility); and (g) emergence of new information that diminishes the scientific importance of the study question. The NIDDK will not permit further expenditures of NIDDK funds for a study after requesting closure except as specifically approved by the NIDDK.
  4. Make recommendations for continued funding based on: a) overall study progress, including sufficient patient and/or data accrual; b) cooperation in carrying out the research (e.g., attendance at calls of participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators or Steering Committee meetings, implementation of group decisions, compliance with the terms of award and reporting requirements); and/or c) maintenance of a high quality of research, which will allow pooling of data and comparisons across multiple cooperative agreement awards for common data elements.
  5. Appoint an independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) as appropriate for Phase III clinical trials or other high-risk studies, and/or an Observational Study Monitoring Board (OSMB) for observational/epidemiologic studies; these Boards will review study progress, safety data, and interim results, as appropriate, and provide guidance to the NIDDK. The NIDDK Program Official or their Project Scientist or Project Coordinator will serve as the Executive Secretary and/or NIDDK program representative on the DSMB/OSMB.
  6. The NIDDK may invite External Consultants [External Experts] with relevant scientific expertise for the sole purpose of consultative advice on scientific developments and opportunities that may enhance the achievement of the study goals.

Areas of Joint Responsibility include:

The Recipient, participating Program Directors/Principal Investigators or Steering Committee, and NIH staff, will cooperatively develop and implement processes to submit information and data to the Central Hub Data Coordinating Center(U24), determine criteria and processes for quality control of information and data to be posted for the research community, refine scientific objectives, and implement research advances to facilitate the goals of the study, consistent with NIH policies and achieving the goals of the program as described in the NOFO.

Executive Committee (EC)

  • The EC will consist of: The Director of the Central Hub Data Coordinating Center, the NIDDK Project Scientist(s) or Project Coordinator, and representative Principal Investigator(s) chosen among the Recipients; the EC is not a governing body and does not cast votes. 
  • The EC will be responsible for organizing the Semi-Annual Investigator Meetings.
  • The EC will have meetings that will be organized by the Director of the Central Hub Data Coordinating Center (U24). Any EC member may place items on the agenda. The EC agenda should be communicated in advance of the meeting to the NIDDK Project Scientist(s) or Project Coordinator. The designated NIDDK Program Official(s) may be asked to participate in order to provide additional information and to summarize actions that are taken.

Steering Committee

  • A Steering Committee organized by the study investigator(s) will be the main governing body of the study.
  • The Steering Committee has primary responsibility to design research activities, establish priorities, develop common protocols and manuals, questionnaires, and other data recording forms, establish and maintain quality control among recipients, review progress, monitor patient accrual, coordinate, and standardize data management, and cooperate on the publication of results. Major scientific decisions regarding the core data will be determined by the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will document progress in written reports to the NIDDK Program Official and will provide periodic supplementary reports upon request.
  • The Steering Committee will be composed of all Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s), (including those of data coordinating /statistical centers, if any) and co-investigators as deemed necessary, and the NIDDK Project Scientist or Project Coordinator.The NIDDK Project Scientist or Project Coordinator will have voting membership on the Steering Committee, and as appropriate, its subcommittees. The NIDDK voting member will have one vote to represent NIH in support of the project. The NIDDK Program Official may serve as a non-voting member on the Steering Committee. The NIDDK Program Official may serve as a non-voting member on the Steering Committee.
  • A Chairperson of the Steering Committee will be selected and voted on by the Steering Committee members.  The Chairperson provides leadership to the Committee by conducting the Steering Committee meetings and by interacting closely with the recipients during protocol development and implementation.  The NIDDK Project Scientist or Project Coordinator may not serve as Chairperson. The NIDDK Program Official will review the Committee's selection for potential bias, conflicts of interest, or lack of required expertise. If the Program Official has concerns regarding selection of the Chairperson which are not satisfactorily resolved, the Program Official may withhold concurrence if approved by the Director, Division of Extramural Activities, NIDDK based on written justification. In cases where Program Official concurrence is withheld, the Steering Committee will be required to make another selection.
  • The frequency of Steering Committee meetings will be dictated by a vote of the members of the Steering Committee. 
  • Recipient(s) agree to the governance of the study through a Steering Committee:
    • The PD/PI, or contact PD/PI in the case of multi-PD/PI awards, will serve as a voting member of the Steering Committee and will attend all meetings of the Steering Committee.
    • Each full member will have one vote.
    • The Recipient will be responsible for accepting and implementing the goals, priorities, procedures, protocols, and policies agreed upon by the Steering Committee and subcommittees.

External Consultants

  • An independent panel of External Consultants may be established by the Steering Committee. The External Consultants may periodically review interim progress of the project(s) and provide reports to the Steering Committee.  The NIDDK Program Official will review the Committee's selections for potential bias, conflicts of interest, or lack of required expertise. If the NIDDK Program Official has concerns regarding selection of one or more External Consultants which are not satisfactorily resolved, the NIDDK Program Official may withhold concurrence if approved by the Director of NIDDK Division of Extramural Activities based on written justification.  In cases where NIDDK Program Official concurrence is withheld, the Steering Committee will be required to make another selection.

Dispute Resolution

  • Any disagreement that may arise on scientific/programmatic matters (within the scope of the award), between award recipients and the NIDDK may be brought to dispute resolution. A dispute resolution panel will be composed of three members --one selected by the recipient (or the Steering Committee, with the NIDDK member not voting), a second member selected by NIDDK, and the third member elected by the two prior selected members; in the case of individual disagreement, the first member may be chosen by the individual Recipient. These special dispute resolution procedures in no way affect the recipient's right to appeal an adverse action that is otherwise appealable in accordance with PHS regulations at 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D, and DHHS regulations at 45 CFR Part 16.
3. Data Management and Sharing

A Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan) is required for any NIH-funded or conducted research that will generate scientific data. Applicants must submit the DMS Plan at the time of application using the NIH DMS Plan Format Page. The DMS Plan must address the elements in the structured format. Where the DMS Plan Format Page requires a "Yes or No" response, no additional narrative is allowed. 

Data Management and Sharing Plan: In accordance with the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing, the NIDDK approved plan will become a term and condition of award, be routinely monitored during the award period, and compliance may factor into future funding decisions. By the end of the funding or proprietary period, a recipient or study group may not continue to use or share study generated resources until those resources are available to the public via a NIDDK approved repository per the NIDDK approved plan. The NIDDK has established a Central Repository to support the receipt, storage, and distribution of data, bio-samples, and other resources generated in clinical studies funded by the NIH/NIDDK. When the NIDDK Central Repository is to be utilized, prior to enrolling participants, the PI or his/her designee will coordinate with the NIDDK Program and Central Repository staff to prepare for eventual archiving and distribution of the study generated resources that are to be maintained in the Central Repository. These resources will be available to the wider scientific community in accordance with the NIH Data Management and Sharing policy (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/ and, https://grants.nih.gov/policy/sharing.htm, and http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/data_sharing_faqs.htm), per the NIDDK approved data management and sharing plan.

4. Reporting

When multiple years are involved, recipients will be required to submit the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) annually and financial statements as required in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 8.4.1 Reporting. To learn more about post-award monitoring and reporting, see the NIH Grants & Funding website, see Post-Award Monitoring and Reporting.

A final RPPR, invention statement, and the expenditure data portion of the Federal Financial Report are required for closeout of an award, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 8.6 Closeout. NIH NOFOs outline intended research goals and objectives. Post award, NIH will review and measure performance based on the details and outcomes that are shared within the RPPR, as described at 2 CFR Part 200.301.

Section VII. Agency Contacts

We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants.

Application Submission Contacts

eRA Service Desk - Questions regarding ASSIST, eRA Commons, application errors and warnings, documenting system problems that threaten submission by the due date, and post-submission issues.

Grants.gov Support Center - Questions regarding Grants.gov registration and services (e.g., Workspace, subscriptions).

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Email: NIDDK_KUH@nih.gov

Peer Review Contact(s)

Center for Scientific Review (CSR)
Email: NOFOReviewContact@csr.nih.gov

Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)

Grants Management Branch
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Email: NIDDKGMBManagementTeam@niddk.nih.gov 

Section VIII. Other Information

Recently issued trans-NIH policy notices may affect your application submission. A full list of policy notices published by NIH is provided in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Authority and Regulations

Awards are made under the authorization of Sections 301 and 405 of the Public Health Service Act as amended (42 USC 241 and 284) and under Federal Regulations 42 CFR Part 52 and 2 CFR Part 200.