A limited competition is a type of notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) that targets or restricts eligible applicant organizations or individuals based on certain scientific or technical aspects, such as geographic area or established research infrastructure. Many restrict eligibility to current awardees under related or expiring funding initiatives.
NIAID also uses limited competitions for specific centers and networks. For example, in recent years, NIAID continued support for a national network of Regional Biocontainment Laboratories by issuing limited competition NOFOs as a means by which to provide them funding.
In a general sense, limited competitions keep prospective applicants from spending time and effort on onerous NOFOs where they would have had a low likelihood of success relative to applicants possessing a sought-after quality, like demonstrated access to a target subpopulation.