National Institutes of Health (NIH)
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is developed as a Common Fund initiative (http://commonfund.nih.gov/) through the Office of the NIH Director, Office of Strategic Coordination (https://dpcpsi.nih.gov/). All NIH Institutes and Centers participate in Common Fund initiatives. The NOFO will be administered by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), (http://www.nidcr.nih.gov) on behalf of the NIH.
R03 Small Grant Program
See Section III. 3. Additional Information on Eligibility.
Many valuable and widely available data sets have been generated by multiple Common Fund programs. The purpose of this NOFO is to announce the availability of funding to demonstrate and enhance the utility of selected Common Fund (https://commonfund.nih.gov/) data sets, including generating hypotheses and catalyzing discoveries. Award recipients are asked to provide feedback on the utility of the Common Fund data resources.
The Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund) supports research and other projects that will accelerate fundamental biomedical discovery and translation of that knowledge into effective prevention strategies and new treatments.
| 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 |
| June 23, 2026 | Not Applicable | 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.
Not Applicable
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.
Introduction
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) aims to promote innovative research to enhance the utility and usability of selected Common Fund (CF) data sets. The submission of small research (R03) applications is encouraged from institutions and organizations proposing projects that lead to enhanced use of selected Common Fund (https://commonfund.nih.gov/) data sets by the wider scientific community.
Small research (R03) grants provide flexibility for initiating discrete, well-defined projects that can be completed in one year and require only limited levels of funding. To be eligible for consideration through this NOFO, the proposed research plan must either: 1) substantially leverage data from at least TWO eligible Common Fund programs (see the complete list in the Objectives and Scope section), or 2) substantially leverage data from Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans (MoTrPAC) with or without additional external study data... “Substantial leverage” is defined as the use and citation of the relevant dataset(s) in the envisioned research products of the proposed work (e.g., manuscripts, presentations, book chapters, portals, etc.) Data from other publicly available datasets, including Common Fund programs not listed above, can be included as needed. Up to two awards will be reserved for use of MoTrPAC data.
This initiative is funded through the NIH Common Fund, which supports cross-cutting programs that are expected to have an exceptionally high impact. All Common Fund initiatives invite investigators to develop bold, innovative, and often risky approaches to address problems that may seem intractable or to seize new opportunities that offer the potential for rapid progress.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity does not accept applications proposing clinical trial(s).
Background
The NIH Common Fund (https://commonfund.nih.gov/) has supported many transformative research programs that generate new technologies, methods, and data. Many of these programs generate rich public data sets containing multi-dimensional molecular and phenotypic data from several organisms, including mice and humans. To maximize the impact of these data, engage a broader community of end-users for wider adoption of these data sets, and to obtain feedback from successful applicants to enhance the data resources, the Common Fund plans to support small research projects (R03) encouraging the use of Common Fund data sets. Awards are intended to enable novel and compelling biological questions to be formulated and addressed, and/or to generate cross-cutting hypotheses for future research.
Objectives and Scope
The goals of this NOFO are to 1) promote the use of Common Fund data sets by supporting pilot studies based on analyses across two or more Common Fund data sets; 2) enhance the utility of existing Common Fund data sets by developing workflows, analytic and simulation tools which will enable simultaneous analysis of multiple Common Fund data sets; and 3) demonstrate the added-value of integrating multiple Common Fund data resources in addressing biomedical research questions.
Investigators are encouraged to utilize various approaches including, but not limited to, systems approaches, artificial intelligence (including generative)/machine learning/deep learning methods, advanced data science methods for data set integration and harmonization, and incorporating computational modeling to bring together high throughput genotype and phenotype data sets. Because information regarding the user experience could help NIH improve its data resources, the recipients will provide feedback on the find ability, usability, and utility of data sets and public data portals, which the awardees will offer during a virtual CFDE R03 awardee meeting and in their close-out reports.
The established Common Fund data sets listed below are well-poised for increased community use. Applicants must propose using TWO or more Common Fund program data sets from the following list, and they can propose using other data sets (including additional NIH Common Fund data sets not listed, other NIH data sets, and non-NIH data sets that are publicly available). Note: applications that use MoTrPAC study data without including other CF datasets below will be considered. Like all applications for this award, other publicly available data is allowed. Applications using MoTrPAC data with CF datasets may be submitted and will be awarded in consideration with all multi-CF applications.
This NOFO accepts different types of projects with the intent of generating preliminary and/or validation data for subsequent funding, including, but not limited to, the following:
Applications are expected to utilize the existing data in the above listed Common Fund data sets. Generation of new data should be limited to testing/validation of predictions. As noted in the R&R or Modular Budget section, there is a budget limit for such activities if experimental studies are proposed.
If a website or online tool is proposed for users, a sustainability plan addressing the maintenance of the tool is expected to be discussed in the submission, with plans that allow up to two additional years of maintenance/utility encouraged. Where applicable, the applicants should describe how they plan to share any tools, pipelines, or workflows used or created through open access channels (e.g., public GitHub links).
Applicants should describe the anticipated timeline, formats, and methods of providing the data generated or annotated -and other products used or created under this NOFO to the relevant Data Coordinating Center or public repository.
For applications that aim to co-analyze Common Fund data with other genomic data sets that are not yet currently accessible through an NIH-approved repository (e.g., dbGaP) or some other public controlled access database (e.g., European Genome-phenome Archive), applicants must describe the database through which the proposed data are accessible to the research community and the details of the data sets including any data use limitations based on the associated consent form and discuss the applicability of the data sets to diverse human populations.
For applications that aim to co-analyze Common Fund data with genomic data sets that are not currently accessible through an NIH-approved repository (e.g., dbGaP) or some other public controlled access database (e.g., European Genome-phenome Archive), applicants must describe their ability and willingness to submit the individual-level sequence data to an NIH-approved repository (e.g., dbGaP) and provide an associated Institutional Certification using the current NIH template (https://osp.od.nih.gov/-sharing/institutional-certifications/). If the Institutional Certification is not available, provide a Provisional Certification and describe the anticipated data use limitations and associated modifiers separately. If submitting a Provisional Certification with the application, please note that a completed Institutional Certification may be required before award.
Frequently Asked Questions regarding this NOFO will be posted on the Common Fund Data Ecosystem Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (https://commonfund.nih.gov/dataecosystem/faqs) website. Applicants are encouraged to review the FAQs before submitting their applications.
See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.
Grant: A financial assistance mechanism providing money, property, or both to an eligible entity to carry out an approved project or activity.
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.
Not Allowed: Only accepting applications that do not propose clinical trials.
The number of awards is contingent upon NIH appropriations and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.
The NIH Common Fund intends to commit approximately $4,000,000 in FY 2026, contingent upon receiving scientifically meritorious applications and having funds available. 10-13 awards are anticipated from this solicitation.
Application budgets are limited to $200,000 in direct costs (excluding subcontract F&A) for one year and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
The maximum project period for an application submitted under this NOFO is one year.
NIH grants policies as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement will apply to the applications submitted and awards made from this NOFO.
Higher Education Institutions - Includes all types
Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
For-Profit Organizations
Local Governments
Federal Governments
Other
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 allowed.
NIH will no longer issue awards (i.e., new, renewal, or non-competing continuation) to domestic or foreign entities that involve foreign subawards/subcontracts. All NIH-funded research involving foreign subawards/subcontracts must be submitted in response to a NOFO that is specifically designated for funded international collaborations. This new requirement was effective, May 1, 2025.
Applications involving foreign subawards/subcontracts submitted in response to this NOFO will be deemed noncompliant and will not be considered for funding. This policy applies to all monetary international collaborations resulting in foreign subawards/subcontracts, however, it does not preclude unfunded international collaborations or foreign components, funding for foreign consultants, or procurement of unique equipment or supplies from foreign vendors.
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.
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.
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.
Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs) and key personnel of the Data Coordinating Centers (DCCs) of the Common Fund programs, PDs/PIs of funded CFDE Centers, PDs/PIs of RFA-RM-23-013 (Partnerships With Common Fund Data Ecosystem Resources (U24 Clinical Trial not Allowed)), and researchers who are involved in the DCC activities as senior/key investigators are not eligible to respond to this announcement. Applicants who are not sure about their eligibility are strongly recommended to contact the Program Officers listed below to discuss their situation prior to submission.
This NOFO does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 1.2 Definition of Terms.
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:
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.
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.
All page limitations described in the How to Apply- Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed.
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.
All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.
If experimental approaches are proposed, they should be limited to 20% of the requested budget.
Applicants are expected to attend one two-day CFDE Consortium meeting in the Spring to be held in Bethesda, MD, to present their work and are also given an opportunity to present their work at a scientific meeting, as well as one additional external scientific meeting/symposium to present and discuss their findings. Travel and related expenses to attend a CFDE meeting and attend a secondary meeting as a presenter should not exceed $5,000 in total costs.
All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions:
Applicants must propose to use data sets from at least two Common Fund programs (i.e., at least one data set each from two different Common Fund programs) from the list under Part 2, Section I, Funding Opportunity Description, and in addition, they can propose to use additional publicly available data sets. Integration across multiple data sets is required. Applicants should provide justification for why particular data sets were chosen for study. The applicant should provide sufficient evidence that the proposed work is feasible, will advance the overall stated goals by increasing knowledge and/or broader utility of the data sets under study, and will enable novel and compelling biological questions to be formulated and addressed to form the basis for a subsequent research application.
Both primary and secondary analyses of Common Fund data sets may be proposed in order to develop hypotheses to address research questions. Investigators should have received access to data sets prior to the award start date. Proposed data analyses must utilize data sets from at least two Common Fund programs from the list above, and may include other NIH or other data sets, as long as the external data are currently accessible through a public controlled access database or can be shared through such a database. For example, studies proposed may combine data within cohorts or across phenotypically different cohorts to more powerfully address research questions if the intent is to catalyze the discovery of new variants, to reveal unrealized common genetic pathways shared by related conditions, or to provide a means to generate preliminary data supporting larger projects focused on functional studies.
Applicants may enhance the value of Common Fund data sets for the research community by proposing to develop analytic methods, tools, pipelines, or workflows that can be incorporated into the data sets and used to address research questions. Applicants may also propose approaches that reflect unique and under-utilized aspects of the listed Common Fund data sets (e.g., using tissue samples from GTEx). If experimental approaches are proposed, the expense of the associated research activities should be limited to 20% of the project budget.
Applicants are expected to attend one two-day CFDE Consortium meeting in the Spring to be held in Bethesda, MD, to present their work and are also given an opportunity to present their work at a scientific meeting, as well as one additional external scientific meeting/symposium to present and discuss their findings. Travel and related expenses to attend a CFDE meeting and attend a secondary meeting as a presenter should not exceed $5,000 in total costs.
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:
Appendix: Only limited Appendix materials are allowed. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the How to Apply - Application Guide.
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.
All instructions in the How to Apply- Application Guide must be followed.
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
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.
This initiative is not subject to intergovernmental review.
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.
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.
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.
Applicants are required to follow the instructions for post-submission materials, as described in the policy
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.
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.
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
Innovation
Approach
Rigor:
Feasibility:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s) convened by the Center for Scientific Review, in accordance with NIH peer review policy and procedures, 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.
Appeals of initial peer review will not be accepted for applications submitted in response to this NOFO.
Applications will be assigned on the basis of established PHS referral guidelines 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 appropriate national Advisory Council or Board. The following will be considered in making funding decisions:
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.
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.
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.
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:
Recipients shall develop plans and procedures, modeled after the NIST Cybersecurity framework, to protect HHS systems and data. Please refer to NIH Post-Award Monitoring and Reporting for additional information.
Not Applicable
Consistent with the 2023 NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing, when data management and sharing is applicable to the award, recipients will be required to adhere to the Data Management and Sharing requirements as outlined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. Upon the approval of a Data Management and Sharing Plan, it is required for recipients to implement the plan as described.
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.
We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants.
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).
Common Fund Data Ecosystem Program
CFDE@od.nih.gov
Center for Scientific Review (CSR)
Email: FOAReviewContact@csr.nih.gov
Common Fund Data Ecosystem Program
CFDE@od.nih.gov
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.
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.