Research on COVID-19 Testing Among Underserved and Vulnerable Populations

Consider applying through one of NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) programs for an emergency award to speed the development and commercialization of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care diagnostics. The awards are expedited, meaning your project could start as soon as eight months after the due date.

NIH launched the RADx initiative in 2020 to quickly develop, commercialize, and implement technologies for COVID-19 testing. Collectively, the four RADx Programs support over a dozen funding opportunities so far. RADx Phases I and II have provided Funding for about 200 projects.

On February 17, 2022, NIH issued the following two new RADx-UP Phase III funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) to support COVID-19 testing for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP):

RFA-OD-22-005, Emergency Awards—RADx-UP—Social, Ethical, and Behavioral Implications (SEBI) Research on Disparities in COVID-19 Testing Among Underserved and Vulnerable Populations (U01, Clinical Trial Optional)

• Projects funded through this FOA will focus on:
  1. The urgent need for social, ethical, and behavioral implications research to understand and reduce barriers to and disparities in COVID-19 testing among underserved and vulnerable populations
  2. Psychological and communication science interventions to improve uptake of testing and vaccination
• Successful applications will pose novel and adaptable scientific questions to address disparities in access and uptake of COVID-19 tests using social and behavioral approaches.

RFA-OD-22-006, Emergency Award—RADx-UP—Community-Engaged Research on Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Testing Among Underserved and Vulnerable Populations (U01, Clinical Trial Optional)

• This FOA highlights the urgent need to leverage rapid SARS-CoV-2 testing to understand and address COVID-19 morbidity and mortality disparities among underserved and vulnerable populations across the United States.
• Funded projects will examine SARS-CoV-2 infection patterns and interventions to increase access to and uptake of diagnostic methods.
• Successful applications will pose novel and adaptable scientific questions given new variants and the availability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Both FOAs support two-year, community-engaged research through rapid U01 cooperative agreement awards. You should expect NIH staff to have substantial programmatic involvement as detailed in both FOAs under “Cooperative Agreement Terms and Conditions of Award.”

Although the March 15, 2022 Pre-Application Webinar has concluded, we expect NIH to share the video in the Past Events section of that page soon.

Applications for both FOAs are due by May 2, 2022, 5 p.m. your local time.

If you have questions about the responsiveness of your application to NIAID, direct your inquiries to the relevant NIAID scientific/research contact:

• RFA-OD-22-005—Sonnie Kim, sonnie.kim@nih.gov or 240-627-3287
• RFA-OD-22-006—Dr. Dipanwita Basu, dipanwita.basu@nih.gov or 240-627-3469

For applications to other NIH institutes or centers, check Section VII. Agency Contacts in each FOA.