We’re pleased to announce a new notice of special interest (NOSI) (NOT-GM-21-050) to address the urgent need for documenting COVID-19-related outcomes of patients, including those suffering from health disparities, which helps foster COVID-19-related clinical research. Competitive revisions to active IDeA-CTR (U54) awards will be considered for the purpose of sustaining and strengthening the IDeA state COVID-19 patient registry, a component of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative.

Applications are due by June 18, 2021. If you have any questions about this NOSI, please contact Hongwei Gao.

NIGMS is pleased to announce our participation in Phase II of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP), a $500 million NIH-wide initiative to understand and reduce morbidity and mortality disparities for vulnerable and underserved populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The initiative funds a national coordination center and a network of projects across the United States aimed at improving COVID-19 testing and understanding COVID-19 health disparities.

Four new RADx-UP Phase II funding opportunity announcements have been published:

We’re pleased to announce the availability of supplements to active INBRE (P20), COBRE (P20, P30), IDeA-CTR (U54), and NARCH (S06) awards to support vaccine hesitancy research relevant to SARS-CoV-2. The supplements are aimed at studying the causes of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy in IDeA states and/or American Indian/Alaska Native communities, and at developing innovative evidence-based interventions to enhance vaccine acceptance with the goal of increased vaccine uptake.

Applications are due by April 30, 2021; see NOT-GM-21-021 for additional details.

If you have any questions about this supplement opportunity, please contact me.

We’re pleased to announce the availability of supplements to active INBRE (P20), COBRE (P20, P30), IDeA-CTR (U54), and NARCH (S06) awards for sequencing-based surveillance studies of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to track variants circulating in communities the IDeA and NARCH programs serve. The supplements will support SARS-CoV-2 viral genome sequencing and analysis studies. Projects are expected to expand on or collaborate with ongoing SARS-CoV-2 testing studies or programs in order to leverage resources and deliver results quickly to help address the urgent challenge.

Applications are due by March 31, 2021; see NOT-GM-21-031 for additional details.

If you have any questions about this supplement opportunity, please contact me.

We’ve joined the NIH Office of the Director and several institutes in two Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Radical (RADx-rad) initiative funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). These FOAs offer an excellent opportunity for NIGMS-supported researchers with expertise in technology development and/or artificial intelligence/machine learning to conduct innovative research addressing the public health emergency caused by COVID-19.

We’re pleased to announce our participation in Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP), a $500 million NIH-wide initiative to reduce morbidity and mortality disparities for vulnerable and underserved populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The initiative will fund a national coordination center and a group of interlinked projects across the United States aimed at improving COVID-19 testing and understanding COVID-19 health disparities.

The announcements for RADx-UP are:

Because many people in the research community are facing considerable challenges trying to juggle various responsibilities during the COVID-19 outbreak, NIGMS will accommodate late application submissions for due dates in May 2020 for all NIGMS-specific FOAs (see NOT-GM-20-029). For applications submitted through June 30, 2020, institutions do not need to request advance permission or provide a cover letter to justify a late submission to these FOAs. Applications with due dates prior to May 25 should use FORMS E and those with due dates on or after May 25 should use FORMS F, regardless of the date of submission.

We’ve published a notice of special interest (NOSI) (NOT-GM-20-025) to address the urgent need for research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We’ll accept competitive revisions (supplements) in three specific scientific areas:

• Incorporation of data related to SARS-CoV-2 into ongoing research efforts to develop predictive models for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other related infectious agents (all grant and cooperative agreement activity codes)
• Repurposing or modification of diagnostic tools currently under development to enable rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection (SBIR/STTR grants only)
• Rapid development of potential therapeutic agents for COVID-19 (SBIR/STTR grants only)

To assist with virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’d like to remind you of the valuable resources NIGMS supports for our trainee and educator communities. These resources apply to all levels, ranging from community college students to faculty.