Concepts represent early planning stages for program announcements, requests for applications, notices of special interest, or solicitations for Council’s input. If NIAID publishes an initiative from one of these concepts, we link to it below. To find initiatives, go to Opportunities & Announcements.
Note: Council approval does not guarantee that a concept will become an initiative.
Table of Contents
Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) Concept
FY 2025 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract Solicitation Topic
FY 2026 DMID Concepts
- Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB) Interdisciplinary Research Units
- Chemistry Center for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CC4CARB)
- Centers for Accelerating Phage (Bacteriophage) Therapy to Combat ESKAPE Pathogens
- Discovery/Development of Novel Therapeutics for Select Fungal Pathogens
- New Therapeutic Strategies for Genital Herpes
- Notice of Special Interest (NOSI)—Accelerating Malaria Vaccine and Monoclonal Antibody Discovery
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI)—Discovery and Development of Small-molecule Direct-acting Antivirals Targeting Viruses of Pandemic Potential
For the published notice of special interest, check the June 27, 2024 Guide notice, Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Discovery and Development of Oral Small-molecule Direct-acting Antivirals Targeting Viruses of Pandemic Potential.
Discovery and Development of Oral Small-molecule Direct-acting Antivirals Targeting Viruses of Pandemic Potential
For the published request for proposals, check the August 2, 2024 solicitation, A Solicitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract Proposals.
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB) Interdisciplinary Research Units
For the published request for applications, check the November 4, 2024 Guide announcement, Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Interdisciplinary Units (CARBIRUs) (P01, Clinical Trial Not Allowed).
Chemistry Center for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CC4CARB)
Request for Proposals—proposed FY 2026 initiative
Contact:
Aytaj Vily
aytaj.vily@nih.gov
Objective: To address a key bottleneck in antimicrobial therapeutics discovery by supporting the acquisition, design, synthesis, and delivery of chemical libraries of novel discrete natural products and small molecules with diverse physicochemical properties, specifically designed for targeting Gram-negative bacterial pathogens.
Description: This concept will continue the innovative CC4CARB chemistry center which designs, synthesizes, and delivers compound libraries to the scientific community for use in antibacterial drug discovery. CC4CARB would deliver novel small molecules with diverse physicochemical properties targeting mainly Gram-negative bacterial pathogens through a single award composed of four core functions:
- Library Design – Through global outreach and scientific community engagement, recruit academic and industry collaborators who contribute new library ideas targeting antibiotic-resistant (AR)/multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens. The ideas are evaluated, and selected ideas are developed into library designs by CC4CARB working in collaboration with the idea submitter. The resulting collection built from these library ideas reflects a crowd-sourced fit-for-purpose compound collection for new antibacterial drug discovery.
- Chemical Synthesis – Synthesis of library designs as new compound libraries of 50-300 compounds per scaffold for inclusion in the CC4CARB compound collection, available to the original idea submitter and the public. NIAID anticipates adding 10,000 new compounds to the CC4CARB collection over the 5-year period.
- Tier 1 in vitro screening – All new compounds will be tested for Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) activity in a panel of sentinel Gram-negative organisms and the data provided to compound requesters and the general public as part of the CC4CARB database.
- Compound Management – The CC4CARB compound collection will be properly stored, maintained, and monitored for integrity of samples. In addition, CC4CARB will make available all data and supporting information about the compounds to the public in a searchable database and distribute samples of the collection to the external research community by request.
Centers for Accelerating Phage (Bacteriophage) Therapy to Combat ESKAPE Pathogens
For the published request for applications, check the October 23, 2024 Guide announcement, Centers for Accelerating Phage (Bacteriophage) Therapy to Combat ESKAPE Pathogens (CAPT-CEP) (P01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed).
Discovery/Development of Novel Therapeutics for Select Fungal Pathogens
For the published request for applications, check the September 23, 2024 Guide announcement, Discovery and Development of Novel Therapeutics for Select Fungal Pathogens (R21/R33, Clinical Trial Not Allowed).
New Therapeutic Strategies for Genital Herpes
For the published request for applications, check the October 15, 2024 Guide announcement, New Therapeutic Strategies for Genital Herpes (R21/R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed).
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI)—Accelerating Malaria Vaccine and Monoclonal Antibody Discovery
For the published notice of special interest, check the November 20, 2024 Guide notice, Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Accelerating Malaria Vaccine and Monoclonal Antibody Discovery.