Limited Competition: Small Grant Program for the NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program (R03 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-25-155

This is a limited competition. The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to support small self-contained translational science research projects that may be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources and are expected to 1) address a general roadblock in science and/or operations that limits the efficiency and effectiveness of translation; 2) develop, demonstrate, and/or disseminate innovative solutions and/or new or better treatments that will have an impact on improving the health of patients; and 3) provide outcomes and preliminary data likely to serve as the basis for the transition of clinical and translational scientists to fully independent academic translational scientists. There is not an expectation that projects supported by the NOFO will likely "move the field forward" at this stage. Yet within the context of the NCATS approach and focus on translational science, the results of a project responsive to this NOFO would be expected to be translated to one or more diseases and/or generalizable. 

The NOFO will support Small Grant Program (R03) applications from NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program’s KL2/K12 scholars and supplement recipients whom have been recently supported directly by the CTSA Program. Applications must be submitted for R03 due dates within 2 years of completion of the KL2/K12 appointment or research supplement. Complete eligibility details are described below (Section III. Eligibility Information).

By providing this funding, the NCATS CTSA Program intends to foster the successful development of the next generation of clinical and translational science leaders trying to launch their independent research careers by augmenting previous investments. This grant support by the CTSA Program is expected to have the following benefits: 

• An opportunity for the recipient to demonstrate additional success in the NIH peer review process 
• An opportunity for the recipient to generate new data, increase scientific output, and/or identify a path forward (new collaboration, clinical trial, Investigational New Drug (IND) application, partnership with a company, etc.) for the clinical and translational science research project 
• An opportunity to prepare and submit a subsequent R01, or equivalent, application. 

Projects supported under this NOFO may include, but are not limited to: 

• Conduct of pilot and feasibility studies; secondary data analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; software or app development, t, that would support the catalysis of a tangible scientific outcome or result in a change in approach ("fast-fail"). 
• Development of new research technology, method or approach that addresses a general roadblock in science and/or operations that limits the efficiency and effectiveness of translation. 
• Demonstration in one or more use cases whether the tool, method, or approach is effective in accelerating research translation, utilizing clear and meaningful metrics and outcomes. 

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Community engagement methods and technologies that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of intervention development and deployment, and measurement of their effects on improving health outcomes. Community engagement should be defined broadly to include local and distributed, physical and virtual communities.
• Development of transformative technologies (such as digital health, telehealth, data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning) to increase efficiency during implementation of clinical research studies or clinical trials (e.g., study site selection and activation, recruitment and retention, patient reported outcomes, biomarker identification and validation, data collection and analysis, risk communication, clinical monitoring, data and safety monitoring, interoperability of electronic health record systems and clinical research data management systems).
• Strategies to engage understudied/underreported populations in clinical research and clinical trials.
• Clinical, genetic or machine-learning approaches that speed the identification or accurate diagnosis of patients to shorten the diagnostic odyssey encountered by patients.
• Approaches that more rapidly identify the molecular underpinnings of genetic diseases and potential targets for therapeutics development, such as computationally-assisted modeling.
• Innovative applications and integration of data science, informatics tools and/or artificial intelligence/machine learning to make data more meaningful, open and accessible for the scientific community (predictive modeling, algorithms, simulation technologies, creation and dissemination of knowledge networks).
• Strategies or approaches to reduce the time to adoption of an intervention.

Application budgets are limited to direct costs up to $50,000 per year and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

January 17, 2025

February 17, 2025

Patrick H. Brown, Ph.D.
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
Telephone: 301-435-1737
Email: patrick.brown@nih.gov