Key Dates

Related Announcements

• June 2, 2022 – Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44] Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-22-176.
• June 2, 2022 – Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-22-178.
• January 14, 2021 – NIAID SBIR Phase II Clinical Trial Implementation Cooperative Agreement (U44 Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PAR-21-082.
• May 7, 2020 – NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-20-194.
• May 7, 2020 – NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-195.
• May 5, 2020 – NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-20-183.
• May 5, 2020 – NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-185.

Issued by

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Purpose

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) encourages applications that seek to better understand Pulmonary Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) Infections and inform development of medical countermeasures.

Background

The annually increasing prevalence of pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases has been estimated at >86,000 cases in the United States.  This exceeds the prevalence of other mycobacterial diseases such as tuberculosis in the US.  Treatment of pulmonary NTM diseases is complicated by high rates of antibiotic resistance, challenging diagnosis, disease recurrence, and that disease often occurs in vulnerable patient groups such as the elderly and those with compromised immune or lung functions.

Research Objectives

This NOSI aims to stimulate advances in diagnosis and treatment of NTM infections that cause or exacerbate pulmonary disease such as Mycobacterium abscessus, Mycobacterium avium complex, and Mycobacterium kansasii.  Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

• Development of new therapeutics to treat pulmonary NTM diseases.
• Development of shorter, safer and more effective combination treatment regimens for pulmonary NTM diseases.
• Development of improved approaches to identify the optimal combination of therapeutic interventions for pulmonary NTM diseases.
• Development and comparison of improved preclinical models of pulmonary NTM diseases and especially more clinically predictive mouse models that sustain infection and develop relevant disease pathology.
• Development of rapid, NTM drug susceptibility testing and NTM point of care molecular diagnostics based on emerging technologies.   
• Development of diagnostics to rapidly and specifically identify NTM strains and differentiate them from other species of mycobacteria.
• Research to better understand factors affecting progression from asymptomatic infections to symptomatic pulmonary NTM diseases.
• Research to improve knowledge of the U.S. prevalence, incidence and demographics of NTM diseases.

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to application receipt dates on or after October 5, 2023 and subsequent receipt dates through July 16, 2026.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) or any reissues of these opportunities through the expiration date of this notice.

• PA-20-185 – NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-183 – NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)
• PA-20-195 – NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-194 – NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)
• PA-22-176 – Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44] Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-22-178 – Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-21-082 – NIAID SBIR Phase II Clinical Trial Implementation Cooperative Agreement (U44 Clinical Trial Required)

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

• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-AI-23-050” (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

Please direct all inquiries to the contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity with the following additions/substitutions:

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Jim P. Boyce, Ph.D.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Telephone: 301-917-5845
Email: Jim.Boyce@nih.gov