Funding News Edition: February 17, 2021 See more articles in this edition
NIAID issued Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Availability of Emergency Awards for Limited Clinical Trials To Evaluate Therapeutic and Vaccine Candidates Against SARS-CoV-2 on August 13, 2020. As announced in the February 17, 2021 Guide notice, the NOSI will expire on March 15, 2021, meaning the deadline to apply is March 14, 2021.
Options for In-Progress Applications
As you likely know, applicants do not apply directly to a NOSI; rather, they submit applications through a designated funding opportunity announcement (FOA) with the NOSI’s notice number specified in the application.
In this case, the NOSI’s designated FOA is NIAID Clinical Trial Implementation Cooperative Agreement (U01, Clinical Trial Required). That FOA falls under NIAID’s investigator-initiated clinical trial (IICT) structure, which includes a process for investigators to complete a prior consultation with NIAID at least 10 weeks before applying. Additionally, most IICT applications make budget requests large enough to prompt our Big Grants policy, which requires applicants to request NIAID’s agreement to accept the application at least six weeks before applying.
If your application is well underway, i.e., you’ve already completed a prior consultation and requested approval to submit a big grant, you should be on pace to apply by March 14.
If you’ve not yet progressed that far in the application process, you are not excluded from applying to conduct a limited clinical trial to evaluate therapeutic and vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2. Instead, you will follow the same process you would have otherwise with two exceptions: you will not list a notice number to specify a NOSI when you apply to the IICT U01 FOA linked above and you will follow the receipt dates listed in the FOA.
Direct any questions or concerns to Sonnie Kim, NIAID’s scientific/research contact for the NOSI.