The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is funding new research related to computational modeling systems of infection and immunity.
The Notice of Special Interest (NOSI), NOT-AI-24-060, is titled “Systems Modeling of Infection and Immunity Across Biological Scales” and was released on July 23. The NOSI encourages researchers to submit applications through the R01 and R21 parent announcements focused on research activities relevant to systems modeling of infection and immunity.
Computational modeling holds tremendous potential for infectious and immune-mediated disease (IID) research. Modeling helps us to elucidate biological mechanisms of infection and transmission, understand immune system responses to various triggers, and characterize longitudinal trajectories of allergic or immune-mediated diseases. Models can also predict population-level epidemic trajectories and optimize public health control measures and therapeutic interventions in response to epidemic threats.
Grant applications citing this NOSI will be reviewed through the established process through the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) and will use NIAID paylines. Projects that include innovative modeling research addressing key NIAID priority biomedical questions across biological scales will be considered for funding. These projects may include, but are not limited to, modeling the infection process, modeling immune and allergenic responses, population-level modeling, and mechanistic models of vaccines and therapeutics. Read the full NOSI to find a list of suggested modeling research topics.
Working With the Center of Excellence
Grant recipients are expected to work collaboratively with NIAID’s Center of Excellence (CoE) for Systems Modeling of Infection and Immunity across Biological Scales, scheduled to initiate in 2025. The CoE will play an important role: Working alongside NIAID, the CoE will coordinate the research community of IID computational modelers and advance IID modeling research across biological scales. This coordinating body aims to accelerate multi-scale model development, sharing, and re-use, to the benefit of the entire IID research community.
Recipients will also be expected to collaborate with the diverse community of investigators participating in the CoE. This includes sharing models and modeling methods in a reproducible way aligned with the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles and the NIAID Data Ecosystem. The CoE aims to foster collaboration among grant recipients through community-building activities, such as an annual meeting, workshops, educational opportunities, and Opportunity Funds.
To learn more about the CoE, read RFA-AI-23-077.
How To Apply
Read the full NOSI for comprehensive instructions on how to apply.
The first available due date for applications is October 5, 2024. Interested parties can submit applications using one of the following notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) or any reissues of these announcements through the expiration date of this notice:
- PA-20-185 - NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- PA-20-195 - NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:
- To acknowledge this NOSI, applicants should include “NOT-AI-24-060” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form.
- In the “Research Strategy,” include an additional section titled "Collaborative Activities" that describes plans for collaboration and participation in activities organized by the CoE for Systems Modeling of Infection and Immunity across Biological Scales. Discuss how these plans will support and enhance the utility and/or interoperability of modeling research proposed in response to this Notice.
Find a full list of grant opportunities on the NIAID Data Science Funding page. Learn more about the process of applying for National Institutes of Health funding on the NIH Grants & Funding website.