NIAID, alongside partnering institutes and centers (ICs), seeks translational exploratory or developmental research to advance the discovery of medical countermeasures (MCMs) through the CCRP Initiative: NIH Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Translational Exploratory/Developmental Research Projects (R21, Clinical Trial Not Allowed) notice of funding opportunity (NOFO).
The Chemical Countermeasures Research Program (CCRP) supports research focused on civilian chemical MCMs and the discovery of novel treatment strategies to combat serious morbidity and mortality resulting from high consequence public health chemical emergencies. The civilian chemical threat spectrum includes chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, pesticides, ultra-potent synthetic (UPS) opioids, and others that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identifies as Chemicals of Concern (CoC).
CCRP urgently needs MCMs to advance national medical and public health preparedness in response to and in recovery from chemical emergencies.
Research Objectives
The CCRP NOFO invites preliminary efficacy or early preclinical development studies towards discovery and validation of novel molecular entities or biologics as candidate MCMs.
Propose in your application exploratory translational research directly related to the preclinical development of novel treatment strategies/approaches that address adverse health effects after exposure to chemical threats.
Example Research Topics
The categories of research supported under this R21 program include:
- Creation/validation of clinically relevant in vivo or in vitro (including 3D/organoid) models of the post-exposure lethality and serious near- and long-term chronic morbidities for the purpose of investigating treatment and prevention strategies.
- Preclinical development of new molecular targeting agents, biologics, or novel strategies based on specific changes in signaling pathways and proteins/genes expression during the post-exposure injury process.
- Evaluation of new combination treatment strategies and development of new agents to enhance the effectiveness of standard-of-care therapies.
- Performance of high-throughput screens for discovery of chemical probes and molecular targeting agents.
- Studies that use Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning models to investigate/discover novel MCM strategies to modulate chemical toxicity.
- Discovery of candidate therapeutics using primary and secondary screening to generate preliminary proof-of-principle in vitro and/or in vivo efficacy data.
- Alternate routes of administration and/or dosing regimen for new or already FDA-approved therapies that would be safer, more effective, or easier to administer during a mass casualty scenario or for specific subpopulations (e.g., pediatric and pregnant) that are at higher vulnerability to the adverse effects of chemical intoxication.
- Proposals seeking to repurpose or expand indications of already approved and authorized products. This may include, but is not limited to:
- Alternate routes of administration or dosing regimen that would be safer, more effective, or easier to administer during a mass casualty scenario.
- Extending a previously observed protective effect of a promising novel or already FDA-approved compound(s) for one chemical threat to others, i.e., broadening the spectrum of activity.
Applications Not Responsive to This NOFO
Review the list below for research that will be considered nonresponsive and will not be reviewed.
- Applications that do not propose research on chemical threats that are on the DHS CoC list (check with program staff prior to submission).
- Applications that propose therapeutics unlikely to be amenable during or after a mass casualty scenario, including therapeutics that must be administered prophylactically or within the first 15 to 30 minutes of exposure. For ultra-potent synthetic opioids only, the administration of therapeutic(s) may be as short as 5 minutes post-exposure.
- Applications addressing health outcomes after chronic chemical exposure, i.e., this NOFO only supports research on health effects after a single acute exposure event.
- Applications proposing to develop environmental decontamination or analytical detection technologies and strategies.
- Applications that only include basic research on mechanisms of toxicity from acute exposures of chemical threats.
- Applications for fundamental studies, such as proposals seeking to characterize pathways or molecular mechanisms of toxicity.
Include Special Biosafety Certification for All Applications
Since many of the chemical threat agents of interest are extremely hazardous to humans, all applications must include a letter from appropriate institutional biosafety officials indicating that studies are deemed safe for research personnel and the environment. Applicants may need special biosafety certifications to conduct research with some chemical threat agents, e.g., chemical warfare agents.
Therefore, NIH encourages applicants to collaborate with laboratories and contract research facilities that are already certified to work with restricted chemical agents, when applicable.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the scientific/research contacts listed in the NOFO for further information on working with restricted chemical agents.
Award Information and Deadline
The award budget for direct costs for the 2-year project period may not exceed $275,000. No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single year. The total project period for an application may not exceed 2 years.
Applications are due on May 30, 2025, by 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization.
Contact Information
Send any inquiries to NIAID’s scientific/research contact, Dr. Dave Yeung, at dy70v@nih.gov or 301-761-7237.