No. NIAID makes cooperative agreement (U) awards for high-priority research areas that require substantial involvement from NIH program or scientific staff. Generally, these are prompted by our publishing a request for applications, as seen at List of NIAID Cooperative Agreement Notices of Funding Opportunities, rather than an investigator submitting an investigator-initiated application to a parent announcement.
Occasionally, NIAID program staff identify an investigator-initiated research project grant (R) or program project (P) application that would be more suited to a cooperative agreement, e.g., a clinical trial that proposes to use a non-routine intervention, an unlicensed product, or a licensed product for an unapproved indication. We may then convert the grant to a U award.