National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

•    Only in certain circumstances, NCATS may consider providing an administrative supplement to existing awards.
•    PDs/PIs are strongly encouraged to consult with their NCATS Program Official (PO) to confirm eligibility, discuss the scope and justification of the proposed supplement, and obtain technical guidance.
 

Applications should be submitted at least 60 days prior to the anticipated need.  Applications received after June 30 will generally be considered for the next fiscal year.  
 

Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss plans for administrative supplement applications prior to submission with the Grants Management Specialist and Program Official (PO) named on the parent grant Notice of Award.   

General questions regarding administrative supplements may be directed to:  [email protected].

NCATS supports scientific meetings, conferences and workshops within our mission of developing solutions that aid many translational research efforts (STAMTRE). Applications can be for any disease or therapeutic area, as long as the knowledge gained will be more broadly applicable to other areas of investigation. Examples include:

• Drug Repurposing
• Novel biologics technologies for better treatments of human disease
• Building multidisciplinary networks to drive science and translation

Per the Rare Diseases Act of 2002, we support scientific meetings to identify research opportunities for rare diseases. We seek applications that:

• Include the active participation of patient support groups in the planning
• Leverage recent breakthroughs or support the advancement of new research endeavors
• Establish clinical practice guidelines

Applications that buttress Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program goals will be considered for support by the CTSA Program.

Typically, we provide between $3,000 and $25,000 per award, but the amount of funding awarded is contingent upon availability of funds, programmatic priorities and recommendations by peer review and program staff. In general, we do not provide co-funding support in excess of the contribution made by the primary awarding NIH ICO.

Conferences starting no earlier than December 1, April 1, and July 1 will be considered for the preceding April 12, August 12, and December 12 receipt dates, respectively.

NCATS will consider the number of times a conference has been previously supported in making funding decisions.

NCATS CONFERENCE GRANTS
[email protected] 

NCATS GMB NOFO
[email protected]  
 

NCATS does not fund Individual Career Development awards.

NCATS encourages institutions to propose CTSA K12 programs that prepare investigators for independent careers in clinical and translational science (CTS). 

Interest areas include:

• Research across the full CTS spectrum, from preclinical through clinical research, implementation, and public health impact
• Studies that advance the science of translation, including development of generalizable methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of translation
• Development and testing of diagnostics, therapeutics, devices, and behavioral interventions to address unmet needs
• Innovations in clinical research design and conduct, including trial methodologies, recruitment, real-world data, and informatics
• Research addressing barriers and inefficiencies in the translational process and proposing solutions to improve outcomes
• Dissemination and implementation research to promote uptake of evidence-based interventions
• Team-based, multi-disciplinary approaches to complex translational challenges
• Use of innovative tools, technologies, and platforms to enhance translational research
• Research leveraging CTSA resources, infrastructure, and collaborative networks

NCATS does not prioritize:

• Basic research that lack a clear translational application
• Single-discipline projects that lack CTS relevance
• Disease-focused research that lack broader translational science impact
• Activities not aligned with the NCATS mission to accelerate translation into health solutions

• The project period duration is up to 5 years.

• NCATS will contribute up to $120,000 per year toward the salary of each K12 scholar, not including fringe benefits.
• NCATS expects budgets to include funds to support K scholar research projects and career development activities with $10,000-$30,000 per individual Scholar per year for research-related expenses..
• NCATS limits the total budget per scholar to $180,000 in direct costs per year
   

• In general, NCATS expects scholars to devote 9 person-months (75 percent of the K12 full-time effort)  to the K12 program, except for those in surgical specialties, which can have less than 9 person-months (75 percent), but no less than 6 person-months (50 percent), protected time for this program, if sufficiently justified and programmatically approved. 

CTSA Training NOFOs Questions
[email protected]
 

NCATS encourages institutions to propose CTSA Institutional National Research Service Award (T32) predoctoral and/or postdoctoral training programs that prepare trainees for careers in clinical and translational science (CTS). 

Interest areas include:

• Research across the CTS spectrum, including preclinical, clinical, and implementation phases 
• Studies that advance the science of translation, including methods to improve the efficiency, quality, and impact of translational research
• Development and testing of diagnostics, therapeutics, devices, and behavioral interventions
• Innovations in research methods, including study design, data science, informatics, and use of real-world data
• Clinical research innovations, including trial design, recruitment strategies, real-world data, and advanced analytics
• Research addressing barriers and inefficiencies in the translational process
• Team-based, interdisciplinary approaches to translational research problems
• Research leveraging CTSA infrastructure, resources, and collaborative networks
• Projects that provide trainees exposure to multiple stages of translation and CTS principles  

NCATS does not prioritize:

• Research limited to basic discovery without a defined translational relevance
• Projects lacking integration within the CTS framework
• Disease-specific studies that lack broader translational science applicability 

• Predoctoral appointments provide ~2-3 years of support. One-year appointments are allowed for students who are interrupting their clinical studies.
• Postdoctoral appointments provide ~2 years of support. Clinical trainees must pause training for full-time research and must have completed residency. Ph.D. trainees should be within ~2 years of degree. 
  
  
   

• The project period duration may be up to 5 years.

• NCATS will provide up to $1,500 per trainee to travel to scientific meetings. 

CTSA Training NOFOs Questions
[email protected]

Research experiences are expected to be relevant to NCATS’ mission of studying translation on a system-wide level, agnostic to a specific disease, to better understand the scientific and operational principles underlying each step of the translational process.
Examples of research experiences appropriate for career levels include, but are not limited to:

• Undergraduates (including those at community colleges): to provide hands-on exposure to research that reinforces their interest in clinical and translational science and/or prepares them for graduate school matriculation and/or careers in clinical and translational science for graduate and medical, dental, nursing and other health professional students.
• Graduate Research and Clinical Students, Postdoctoral Fellows and Medical Residents: to extend their skills, experiences, and knowledge base in order to engage in clinical and translational science research activities.
• Junior Faculty: to enhance their research skills, experiences, and knowledge base relative to clinical and translational science by working with faculty members at a partnering institution.

Applications are considered for funding after January and October councils. Although applications are accepted for all opportunity due dates, we recommend submitting to due dates that align with those councils.

• Undergraduate
• Predoctoral
• Postdoctoral/Residency
• Early Career

The maximum project period is 5 years.

The maximum budget is $100,000 direct costs/year. Awarded budgets will reflect any yearly fluctuations in the project workload. NCATS expects recipients to provide training experience to a cohort of participants in each year of the award. 

Personnel Costs: Total allowable personnel (including consultants) cost should be proportional to the number of participants in the program. For each participant, up to $3,500 (Direct Cost) is allowed for personnel (including consultant) costs per year.
Participant Costs
Allowable participant costs include: 

• Round-trip travel to and from the R25 research experience site for non-local participants. 
• Research education-related expenses. 
• Salary and fringe benefits. 
• A housing allowance. 

Other Program related Expenses: Note that consultants may include individuals serving in a variety of roles, such as faculty, lecturers, advisors, etc., and that consultant costs are capped, depending on the personnel costs and the number of participants in the research experiences program. See Personnel Costs section above for details.
 

CTSA Training NOFOs Questions 
[email protected]
 

NCATS supports research including, but not limited to, clinical technology, instruments, devices, and related methodologies that may have broad application to clinical research and better patient care. Our interests are in four main categories- (1) Preclinical Drug Discovery and Development; (2) Biomedical, Clinical and Health Research Informatics; (3) Clinical, Dissemination and Implementation Research and (4) Rare Diseases and Unmet Needs.
 

1. Innovative platforms for identification and prioritization of targets for therapeutic intervention with clear clinical impact.
2. Technologies to determine alternative uses for existing therapeutic interventions.
3. Tools and technologies to allow assaying of activities of compounds on currently “non- druggable” targets.
4. Phenotypic assay development, including stem cell technology platforms for human “disease in a dish” applications and the evaluation of toxicity.
5. Co-crystallization high-throughput screening techniques.
6. Small molecule and biologics analytical characterization.
7. Tools and technologies that increase the predictivity or efficiency of medicinal chemistry, biologic, or other intervention optimization.
8. Accelerate bioengineering approaches to the development and clinical application of biomedical materials, devices, therapeutics, and/or diagnostics.
9. Tools and technologies that increase the efficiency of human subjects research, including development of technologies that facilitate rapid diagnosis and/or clinical trial recruitment and subject tracking, IRB evaluation, and/or regulatory processes.
10. Novel platforms, technologies and tools for: (1) enabling clinical and translational research, particularly those with mechanisms for addition of patient reported data and (2) integration of patient data collected from multiple devices and wide-ranging clinical studies.
11. Searchable access to information about researchers and their expertise, including but not limited to their publications, published data sets, methods, patents, clinical trials, partnerships, collaborators, and clinical specialty/expertise (if applicable).
12. Tools for meaningful sharing of research data with low barrier for provision and user-friendly access.
13. Microphysiological Systems (MPS)/Tissue Chips.
14. Tools for building, maintaining, and utilizing knowledge networks, including but not limited to the use of large language models and other artificial intelligence software to mine the biomedical knowledge base, supporting NCATS goals such as drug repurposing for disease treatment.
15. Algorithms and validation frameworks for the application of artificial intelligence towards all stages of the translational pathway.

NCATS-SBIRSTTR
[email protected]