NIAID invites applications from single institutions or consortia of institutions to participate in the Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers (AADCRC) program through the new request for applications (RFA) Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers (U19, Clinical Trial Optional).
Objective and Scope
The objective of this RFA is to support clinical and translational research on asthma, rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, and drug allergy. The overarching goals of this program are to improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of these conditions through collaborative research and provide a rational foundation for new, effective treatments and prevention strategies.
Research Interests Relevant to NIAID
NIAID’s programmatic priorities for this RFA are:
- The role of innate and adaptive immune functions in the development and pathogenesis of asthma and allergic diseases with a focus on severe asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis, atopic dermatitis, and drug allergy
- The impact of the microbiome and of pollution on immune responses as they pertain to developing, preventing, and managing asthma, allergic rhinitis, food allergy, and atopic dermatitis
- The interaction between infections and atopy and the role of immune responses to infections in the development and exacerbations of asthma, allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, and atopic dermatitis
- Understanding the mechanisms of allergen immunotherapy-induced clinical desensitization and tolerance for treating and preventing asthma, allergic rhinitis, and food allergy and improving the efficacy, safety, and ease of use of this therapeutic modality
- Identifying genetic variations and epigenetic alterations affecting host immune responses to aeroallergens, food allergens, and drug allergens and patient responses to therapeutic interventions in asthma, allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, atopic dermatitis, and drug allergy
- Clinical, immunologic, and physiologic phenotyping and endotyping of drug allergy, chronic rhinosinusitis, and non-allergic rhinitis syndromes that provide mechanistic insights for disease etiology or management
Nonresponsive Research Areas of Interests
NIAID will consider applications including the following studies to be nonresponsive and not review them:
- Research on autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases
- Research on primary immune deficiency diseases
- Demonstration and Education Research Projects
- Phase III clinical trials
- Clinical trials at foreign sites
- Continuation of ongoing (active) clinical trials. The applicant may propose only new clinical trials. For the purpose of this RFA, a new trial is defined as one that has not previously recruited any subjects and will not be recruiting any subjects prior to award
- Applications in which human research is not the focus
- Research on HIV or AIDS
The proposed research should be defined as human subjects research or use human material. Studies using only transformed human cell lines will not meet this requirement.
AADCRC Components
NIAID encourages highly integrated and synergistic research proposals for the AADCRC program. This includes multi-institutional applications for conditions of interest to this funding opportunity announcement (FOA), especially where research resources are limited.
AADCRC Research Programs funded under this FOA will comprise multiple components to carry out the broad research scope. Component projects and cores within a single application should relate not only to a central theme relevant to the specified diseases of interest but also to the other components within the same application. Research programs could be organized around either:
- One or more immunologic mechanism/pathway that is hypothesized to be an important pathobiologic process in a condition of interest to this FOA
- One or more clinical trials or observational clinical studies that test a novel therapeutic or preventive approach, a mechanistic hypothesis, or aim at elucidating disease phenotypes and endotypes in a condition of interest to this FOA
Each application must include an Administrative Core that is responsible for the overall management, communication, coordination, and supervision of the program and at least two research projects organized around a common theme or hypothesis. Research should meet the HHS Definition of Human Subjects Research or use human material.
Submission Information
Application budgets are limited to $900,000 in annual direct costs and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The total project period must be five years. We will allow only one application per institution.
NIAID will accept renewal applications only from grantees funded under RFA-AI-16-065.
The RFA has a single submission deadline. Applications are due by 5 p.m. local time of the applicant organization on June 3, 2022.
Contact Information
If you have questions about the RFA, reach out to Dr. Gang Dong, NIAID’s scientific/research contact, at 240-627-3508 or gdong@niaid.nih.gov. Direct questions concerning peer review to Dr. James Snyder, NIAID’s peer review contact, at 240-669-5060 or james.snyder@nih.gov.