NIH Institutes and Centers likely to participate include some or all of the following:
Office of the Director (OD)

Eunice Kennedy ShriverNational Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)

Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)

Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)

The purpose of this Notice is to alert the community that NIH plans to publish four Funding Opportunity Annoucements (FOAs) as part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative to solicit research on COVID-19 diagnostic testing in underserved and vulnerable populations. The FOAs are expected to be published in early June, and we will accept applications through August 2020 for FY20 funding.The FOAs will be Requests for Applications (RFAs) and Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) for competitive revisions. The goal is to make awards by September 2020.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants additional time to develop responsive applications.

Research Initiative Details

The goal of RADx-UP is to reduce COVID-19 associated morbidity and mortality disparities for those vulnerable and underserved populations that are disproportionately affected by, have the highest infection rates of, and/or are most at risk for adverse outcomes from contracting the virus. This Notice encourages researchers to leverage partnerships with key stakeholders to conduct community-engaged research to understand COVID-19 disparities and to increase access and effectiveness of diagnostic testing interventions among underserved COVID-19 medically and/or socially vulnerable populations.

NIH plans to publish three NOSIs for competitive revision awards as follows:

1. To solicit emergency competitive revision applications to existing awards for large consortia, multi-site trials, centers and other current networks that have adequate capacity, infrastructure, and established community-engaged relationships to support large-scale testing interventions or have the capacity to ramp up quickly to reach underserved or vulnerable populations.
2. Similar to the above, but shifts eligibility to collaborative and individual research awards, generally focused on smaller underserved or vulnerable populations.
3. To solicit research to understand the social, ethical, and behavioral implications (SEBI) of COVID-19 testing in these populations.

The fourth funding opportunity using the U24 activity code will be announced for a Coordination and Data Collection Center (CDCC), a key component of the consortium. The CDCC will serve as a national resource, working with NIH scientific staff and consortium members to provide overarching support and guidance in the following four domains: (1) Administrative Operations and Logistics, (2) COVID-19 Testing Technology, (3) Community and Health System Engagement and (4) Data Collection, Integration and Sharing.

The NIH intends for the awardees of the three NOSIs to serve as one consortium of interlinked, community-engaged, intervention projects across the United States (coordinated by the CDCC)to deploy implementation strategies to improve the reach, acceptance, uptake, and sustainability of COVID-19 testing and ultimately understand COVID-19 health disparities.

Researchers planning to apply are strongly encouraged to read all four of these interrelated funding opportunities.

Funding Information

Estimated Total Funding: TBD

Expected Number of Awards: TBD

Estimated Award Ceiling: TBD

Primary CFDA Numbers: 93.310

Anticipated Eligible Organizations

Public/State Controlled Institution of Higher Education
Private Institution of Higher Education
Nonprofit with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institution of Higher Education)
Nonprofit without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institution of Higher Education)
Small Business
For-Profit Organization (Other than Small Business)
State Government
Indian/Native American Tribal Government (Federally Recognized)
County governments
City or township governments
Special district governments
Independent school districts
Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
Indian/Native American Tribally Designated Organization (Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
U.S. Territory or Possession
Indian/Native American Tribal Government (Other than Federally Recognized)
Regional Organization

Applications are not being solicited at this time.