Notice of Special Interest: Advancing the Understanding, Prevention, and Management of Infections Transmitted from Women to their Infants

Notice Number: NOT-HD-19-021

Key Dates
Release Date: September 20, 2019
First Available Due Date: February 5, 2020
Expiration Date: September 8, 2022

Related Announcements

PA-19-056 - Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-18-480 NICHD Research Project Grant (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-18-482 - NICHD Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21 - Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Purpose

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to stimulate investigations including translational, epidemiologic and clinical studies and trials that improve the understanding, prevention and clinical outcomes of non-HIV infections transmitted from women to their offspring during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and breastfeeding. NICHD is committed to supporting research that will increase scientific understanding of and treatments for high-priority perinatal infections.

Topics of Interest

High-priority perinatal infections of interest include, but are not limited to, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex viruses, toxoplasmosis, viral hepatitis, Human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV-1/2), Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease), enteroviruses, parvovirus B19, and zika virus.

Relevant research gaps include but are not limited to the need for:

  • Well-designed studies that use epidemiologic, laboratory and/or clinical methods to elucidate the interaction of pathogen with host, maternal and fetal/infant and other factors that can enable or impede infection transmission.
  • Development of novel methods, targets and strategies for rapid, point of care screening and diagnosis of perinatally transmitted infections, including maternal, fetal, placental and/or infant testing, that are cost-effective and can be used for simultaneous testing for multiple infections of interest.
  • Studies of safety, pharmacokinetics and/or efficacy to evaluate drugs and other agents with promise for prevention or treatment of perinatally transmitted infections but for which only in vitro, animal and/or non-pregnant human (beyond infancy) data may exist;
  • Studies testing the ability of such drugs and other agents to reduce risk of perinatal infection
  • Studies to evaluate improved outcomes maternal, pregnancy and infant in the face of infection.

Application and Submission Information

This Notice applies to due dates on or after February 5, 2020 and subsequent receipt dates through September 8, 2022.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following FOAs or any reissues of these announcements through the expiration date of this Notice.

  • PA-19-056 - Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • PA-18-480 NICHD Research Project Grant (R01 Clinical Trial Required)
  • PA-18-482 - NICHD Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21 - Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and referenced FOAs must be followed, with the following additions:

  • For funding consideration, applicants must include "NOT-HD-19-021" (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B, or non-responsive to the terms of this NOSI will not be considered for this NOSI initiative.
  • Applicants planning to submit an application in response to this NOSI are strongly encouraged to contact the NICHD scientific/programmatic contact(s) listed on this NOSI in advance of the application due date.

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

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Nahida Chakhtoura, MD, MsGH
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Telephone: 301-435-6872
Email: nahida.chakhtoura@nih.gov