Concepts represent early planning stages for program announcements, requests for applications, or solicitations for Council’s input. If NIAID publishes an initiative from one of these concepts, we link to it below. To find NIAID initiatives, go to Explore NIH Grant Opportunities.
Note: Council approval does not guarantee that a concept will become an initiative.
Table of Contents
Fiscal Year (FY) 2028 Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) Concepts
- Improved Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) for Mycobacteria
- Limited Competition: Resources and Workforce Development for the Regional Biocontainment Laboratories
- Translational Centers Using Microphysiological Systems for Infectious Diseases
- Systems Biology of Infection and Inflammation in Chronic Diseases
Improved Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) for Mycobacteria
For more information, go to View Grant Opportunity for Improved Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) for Mycobacteria. Note: Information is tentative and subject to change.
Request for Applications—proposed FY 2028 initiative
Contact:
Karen Lacourciere
Objective: The objective of this initiative is to support comprehensive research aimed at developing improved drug susceptibility tests (DSTs) for mycobacterial drugs, including those currently used for treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and clinically important non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), as well as new drugs and drugs in late-stage clinical development.
Description: This initiative will accept applications to advance new diagnostic technologies for TB and NTM drug susceptibility testing (DST), supporting research from basic science to assay development. As new drugs are developed, companion DST diagnostics are needed to optimize their use. Current phenotypic DST methods, though clinically relevant for TB, are limited by slow, culture-based processes. In vitro DST often does not correlate with clinical outcomes for NTM disease. This initiative will solicit innovative DST assays, including rapid genotypic assays and improved phenotypic assay methods that do not require full culture growth and provide an answer earlier than current culture methods. Exploratory research to better understand genotypic and phenotypic correlations with clinical drug resistance, especially for NTMs, where in vitro results often poorly predict clinical outcomes, will be encouraged. The funding opportunity targets technology holders collaborating with academic, clinical, and laboratory mycobacterial diagnostic experts, ensuring that appropriate thresholds and cut-offs for calling drug resistance (DR) and sensitivity correlate with values used in clinical decision-making with gold-standard, culture-based DST.
Limited Competition: Resources and Workforce Development for the Regional Biocontainment Laboratories
For more information, go to View Grant Opportunity for Limited Competition: Resources and Workforce Development for the Regional Biocontainment Laboratories. Note: Information is tentative and subject to change.
Request for Applications—proposed FY 2028 initiative
Contact:
Fayna Diaz San Segundo
Objective: The objective of this concept is to provide support to the Regional Biocontainment Laboratories (RBLs) for development and maintenance of resources, staff, and facilities necessary to ensure biosafety and biosecurity while addressing infectious diseases research and public health emergency preparedness and response needs.
Description: This limited competition will support facility maintenance and operations at the NIAID RBLs, as well as biocontainment training of researchers in biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) practices, with the following components:
- Administrative support and hiring of dedicated staff (continuity of operations)
- Operational management monitoring, oversight, and certifications
- Preventative life-cycle replacements and non-routine maintenance and monitoring of critical BSL-3 equipment and systems necessary for operating the RBL at BSL-3 containment level and associated building systems
- Ensuring compliance with all biosafety and biosecurity regulations, including select agents
- BSL-3 Practices—training for personnel working in and around BSL-3 spaces and associated building systems
- Research Support Services—additional services that support activities across the RBLs
Translational Centers Using Microphysiological Systems for Infectious Diseases
For more information, go to View Grant Opportunity for Translational Centers Using Microphysiologic Systems for Infectious Diseases. Note: Information is tentative and subject to change.
Request for Applications—proposed FY 2028 initiative
Contact:
Mark Williams
Objective: The objective of this initiative is to accelerate use of microphysiological systems (MPS) for infectious diseases and medical intervention development, promoting adoption for use by product developers and regulatory acceptance. This initiative will target regulatory qualification of MPS models of infectious disease as drug development tools (DDTs) that are “fit for purpose” for industry needs and have specific defined contexts of use (CoUs).
Description: This initiative will support multidisciplinary teams with complementary expertise in developing MPS models of infectious disease(s), to include:
- Infectious disease experts (and intervention testing)
- MPS resources (e.g., technology/platform, cell source(s), etc.)
- MPS qualification (regulatory experts)
This initiative will also establish benchmarks driven towards the qualification of MPS infectious disease model(s) as DDTs for specific CoUs; engagement with NIH, FDA and industry partners; and plans for dissemination of qualified MPS models.
Systems Biology of Infection and Inflammation in Chronic Diseases
For more information, go to View Grant Opportunity for Precision and Systems Biology to Uncover the Link Between Chronic and Infectious Diseases. Note: Information is tentative and subject to change.
Request for Applications—proposed FY 2028 initiative
Contact:
Keehwan Kwon
Objective: The objective of this initiative is to advance system-level understanding of the complex interactions among infection and inflammatory pathways that result in predisposition, onset, and progression of chronic diseases. The program will stimulate integration of clinical and patient data with large-scale omics datasets, advanced artificial intelligence (AI), and computational modeling, ultimately enabling precision approaches for prevention, treatment, and mitigation of combined impacts of chronic diseases, inflammation, and infections.
Description: To address gaps in our knowledge of chronic disease development and progression, this initiative proposes a consortium-based, multicenter, and multidisciplinary research approach leveraging longitudinal patient cohorts with chronic illnesses and their associated infections or persistent or abnormal inflammation using systems biology approaches. The research will encompass a broad spectrum of chronic diseases, for example, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, and disorders of immune modulation and inflammation which might result from or exacerbate acute infections. The research will study the microbiome’s role in disease development and how chronic diseases affect susceptibility to subsequent infections. Each center will conduct multiproject studies integrating biospecimen collection, multi-omic analyses, and advanced AI and computational modeling. The projects will be supported by multiple dedicated cores for data sharing, technology development, and the validation of biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Within this effort, some centers will focus on the connection between chronic and infectious diseases, while others will address the role(s) of inflammation in chronic diseases. By integrating clinical metadata and large-scale datasets, validating findings through laboratory, organoid, and animal models, and refining predictive models with real-world data, the consortium aims to deliver precision strategies for prediction, prevention, and treatment of chronic consequences of infectious diseases. Collaboration with multiple NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) will ensure alignment with strategic priorities, maximize impact through access to diverse cohorts, and ultimately advance a systems-level understanding of the complex interplay between infections and chronic diseases to inform innovative preventive and therapeutic approaches.