Limited Competition for the Continuation of the Drug Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) Clinical Centers (U01) | RFA DK 17 509

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 17 509

This grant opportunity, titled "Limited Competition for the Continuation of the Drug Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) Clinical Centers (U01)," is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding announcement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that supports the continued operation of the Drug-induced Liver Injury Network. It is a discretionary funding opportunity offered as a cooperative agreement (U01), meaning awardees would be expected to work closely with NIH program staff in carrying out the project goals rather than operating entirely independently. The announcement is structured as a limited competition, which typically indicates that eligibility to apply is restricted (for example, to existing network sites or a defined subset of institutions), and it is aimed specifically at maintaining and strengthening a coordinated national clinical research infrastructure rather than starting a brand-new program from scratch.

The core purpose of the funding is to support DILIN Clinical Centers, which serve as the front-line components of the network. These centers are responsible for identifying patients with suspected drug-induced liver injury (DILI), enrolling eligible participants, and conducting detailed clinical characterization. In practical terms, that means assembling high-quality, standardized information on patient histories, exposures to prescription drugs and over-the-counter agents, and the use of nutritional supplements or herbal products that may be implicated in liver injury. Because DILI can look like many other liver diseases, careful clinical evaluation and consistent data collection across sites are central to the network's value. The intent is to ensure that DILIN continues to generate reliable, comparable clinical data that can be used to improve diagnosis, management, and scientific understanding of these injuries.

The scientific and clinical rationale for the program is that DILI remains one of the most difficult liver disease problems for clinicians and researchers. A wide range of agents, including several hundred medications and supplements, have been associated with liver injury, and the resulting illness can vary widely in severity and presentation. Patients may present with patterns that resemble viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver disease, biliary obstruction, fatty liver disease, or other hepatobiliary conditions, which makes it challenging to determine whether a drug or supplement is the true cause. By supporting clinical centers that can systematically find, evaluate, and follow these cases, DILIN aims to reduce uncertainty in the field and help build an evidence base that improves patient care and supports public health.

This FOA also emphasizes that the clinical centers are one part of a broader network model. A companion funding announcement (RFA-DK-17-510) was issued to continue the DILIN Data Coordinating Center, which is responsible for central data management and coordination functions that allow multiple clinical sites to operate under shared protocols and common standards. Together, the clinical centers and the coordinating center enable DILIN to function as a unified national resource rather than a collection of disconnected case reports. The network approach is particularly important for DILI because many individual agents cause relatively uncommon events at single sites, so pooling cases across centers is necessary to detect patterns, define phenotypes, and support meaningful analyses.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed under CFDA number 93.847 and falls within the activity category of food and nutrition and health. The eligible applicants specified in the source information are public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, indicating that the applicant pool is focused on public academic institutions capable of supporting clinical research operations. The funding announcement was created on August 14, 2017, with an original closing date of December 5, 2017. The anticipated award structure included up to six expected awards, with an award ceiling of $250,000, reflecting relatively moderate per-site funding intended to sustain clinical network functions rather than fund large standalone trials.

Finally, the announcement situates DILIN as an established and influential program. It notes that over the prior 14 years, DILIN publications have become a major source of information for clinicians, hepatologists, researchers, and the public, both in the United States and internationally. The continuation of the clinical centers under this FOA is therefore positioned as a way to preserve and extend a proven national capability for collecting and interpreting DILI cases, advancing understanding of causality and outcomes, and ultimately helping to decrease the burden of drug-induced liver injury through better recognition, characterization, and dissemination of findings.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition for the Continuation of the Drug Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) Clinical Centers (U01)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 14, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 05, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for RFA DK 17 509

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: