Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-20-185- NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-20-195 – NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-20-183- NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-20-194- NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

Issued by

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to highlight NIAID’s interest in accepting applications that aim to understand the critical drivers of Tuberculosis (TB) transmission at the individual and population levels in high-burden settings. Applicants are encouraged to develop effective methods to measure rates of TB transmission that rely on an increased understanding of the biomedical basis of transmission and related risk factors and to develop and assess potential interventions, including low-cost and low-tech options, to prevent TB transmission.

Background

TB is one of the leading infectious disease causes of mortality in the world. About 1.7 billion people are currently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and are at risk of developing active TB disease. The challenge to eliminate TB remains as relevant and urgent as ever. The large reservoir of sub-clinical TB infections, the HIV co-epidemic, interruptions in TB control programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in TB drug resistance make public health efforts to battle this disease complex. Efforts to control this global epidemic have been hampered by inadequate understanding of the underlying epidemiology and biologic mechanisms of transmission and lack of effective interventions to prevent TB transmission. The key drivers of transmission are not completely understood and developing interventions has thus far remained unattainable.

TB disease incidence appears to be driven more by recent transmission rather than by reactivation events, so identification of biomarkers of recent transmission would allow identification of people more likely to develop active disease. The TB transmission cycle is extremely complex with multiple contributing host/pathogen/micro-environmental factors. Improved knowledge of these interactions and factors driving transmission would allow efficacious approaches for preventing transmission, to be developed or improved and adapted for a broad scale-up. This is particularly timely, as advances in understanding aerobiology and transmission for COVID may be leveraged to understand and prevent transmission of TB.

Research Objectives

Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

• Aerobiology;
• Environmental impacts on transmission;
• Understanding non-traditional spread (e.g., without cough or other symptoms, community spread with limited contact);
• Development or assessment of new methods or tools to measure transmission;
• Understanding how the spectrum of TB disease (including asymptomatic and sub-clinical disease) determines the risk of transmission;
• Identifying host factors or host/pathogen interactions that encourage transmission;
• Defining characteristics or sub-populations of Mtb strains that impact transmission, including the role of Mtb strain heterogeneity;
• Studies of transmission in high-risk groups (e.g., healthcare workers, congregate settings);
• Understanding the role of asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic and differentially culturable TB in transmission;
• Studies to understand how to most effectively utilize resources to reduce transmission (e.g., preventive therapy, active screening strategies, targeted diagnosis, improved ventilation or airflow patterns).

Currently, tracking the spread of TB relies on analogue tools in many settings, which does not allow tracking of transmission in real time. Projects will be encouraged to consider incorporating the use of improved data systems for tracing TB transmission and explore how digitized health can improve our understanding of control of TB transmission.

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to application receipt dates on or after February 5, 2023 and subsequent receipt dates through January 7, 2026.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcements through the expiration date of this notice.

• PA-20-185 - NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-195 - NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-183 - NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)
• PA-20-194 - NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-AI-22-064” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Karen Lacourciere, Ph.D.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Telephone: 240-627-3297
Email: lacourcierek@niaid.nih.gov