New Funding Opportunities and Announcements from NIA and NIH
- Roybal Coordinating Center
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
NEW! PA-26-002: NIH Collaborative International Research Project (Parent PF5 Clinical Trial Optional). Multiple receipt dates through May 07, 2029.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) seeks to advance its mission by maintaining strong, productive, and secure international research collaborations in support of the NIH mission. The NIH Collaborative International Research Project (Parent Announcement) supports international research collaborations. This opportunity specifically implements an award structure of prime domestic awards with independent foreign awards that are linked to the prime. This structure provides NIH with oversight capacity for international collaborations, and allows NIH to track international funding, as identified in NOT-OD-25-104. This funding opportunity is specifically designed for NIH to support funded international collaborations between a domestic prime organization and foreign organizations. This NOFO should not be used for foreign consultants, purchasing unique equipment or supplies from foreign vendors, foreign collaborations that do not involve NIH funding, or any other foreign component that would not result in a foreign subaward.
All collaborative international research project applications must include at least 1 international subproject. The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices (ICOs) based on their scientific missions. The application will be evaluated as a whole, and the international subproject(s) will be evaluated on whether the project presents special opportunities for furthering research programs through the use of unusual talent, resources, populations, or environmental conditions in other countries that are not readily available in the United States or that augment existing United States resources, and whether the proposed project has specific relevance to the mission and objectives of the ICO and has the potential for significantly advancing the health sciences in the United States.
In 2014, the NIH revised its clinical trial definition to increase transparency, accountability, and precision in tracking research:
A research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes.
This new definition was part of a broader stewardship initiative to ensure all NIH-supported research involving human participants is subject to rigorous standards and that results are rapidly disseminated, even if not considered an Applicable Clinical Trial under Section 801 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act. As part of this effort, the categories of research considered clinical trials were expanded to include Basic Experimental Studies Involving Humans (BESH).
Because policies related to results dissemination have changed since 2014, and as part of ongoing efforts to reduce administrative burden, effective for applications submitted to due dates on or after May 25, 2026, the NIH will no longer characterize BESH as clinical trials. In the context of the definition of clinical trials, the NIH now considers a health-related biomedical or behavioral outcome as having the potential for direct advancement of health. Although BESH research, which produces fundamental information about biology or behavior, might eventually inform advances in health, it is not conducted with the express intent of changing clinical practice or health but rather aims to understand fundamental aspects of phenomena without immediate clinical applications. Therefore, BESH research is no longer considered to meet the NIH definition of a clinical trial.
PAR-24-273: Advancing Healthcare for Older Adults from Populations that Experience Health Disparities (R01 - Clinical Trial Optional). Multiple receipt dates through January 7, 2028.
The purpose of this initiative is to advance the science and implementation of innovative multi-level health care research for older adults from populations that experience health disparities. The initiative will support research designed to (1) gain a better understanding of appropriate screening, diagnostic, and clinical care guidelines in a primary care setting, (2) explore shared decision-making that is needed to enhance care planning and patient agency between clinicians and care teams with the older adult and their caregiver(s), and (3) identify effective strategies for care coordination.