Translational Resource Centers to Build Bridges Between Substance Use Epidemiology/Etiology and Prevention Intervention Research (U24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed) | RFA DA 25 085

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DA 25 085

The National Institutes of Health is offering a discretionary funding opportunity (RFA-DA-25-085) titled "Translational Resource Centers to Build Bridges Between Substance Use Epidemiology/Etiology and Prevention Intervention Research (U24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)." This initiative uses the U24 cooperative agreement mechanism, which generally means awardees will not only carry out a proposed set of activities but will also coordinate closely with NIH staff as partners in shaping, refining, and monitoring the work. The core goal is to create and support "translational resource centers" that help multidisciplinary teams move more efficiently from what is known in substance use epidemiology and etiology (patterns, causes, risk and protective factors, and mechanisms identified in population and causal research) to actionable prevention intervention research (designing, adapting, testing for feasibility, and implementing prevention approaches). Clinical trials are not allowed under this funding opportunity, so the emphasis is on team-building, infrastructure, coordination, and translational planning and early-stage development activities rather than running intervention trials.

A central feature of the opportunity is the deliberate use of hands-on, collaborative meeting formats to generate new ideas and form durable research teams. The announcement specifically calls out "sandpit" and "hackathon" approaches. In practice, sandpits are typically intensive, facilitated workshops designed to bring together diverse participants to rapidly develop novel, fundable research concepts and teams around a shared challenge area. Hackathons similarly convene participants for focused, time-bounded collaboration, often centered on data use, analytics, tool-building, or developing workflows that can unlock new kinds of research questions and outputs. Here, the intention is to help researchers actively work with existing epidemiologic and etiologic datasets, identify prevention-relevant questions that can realistically be answered with those data, and translate insights into intervention development or implementation strategies. The resource center concept goes beyond one-off events by requiring activities that sustain the teams and networks created through these convenings, building a longer-term foundation for cross-disciplinary research programs that can generate real impact.

The opportunity sits at the intersection of education and health (CFDA 93.279) and is focused on prevention science for substance use. Rather than funding a single research project, it is geared toward creating the connective tissue that allows multiple projects and collaborations to emerge: shared methods, shared language across disciplines, data-driven hypothesis generation, practical translation plans, and ongoing collaboration structures. A strong application would therefore typically describe how the center will recruit and curate the right mix of expertise (for example, epidemiologists, etiologists, prevention intervention developers, implementation scientists, biostatisticians/data scientists, community partners, and policy or systems stakeholders), how it will select and prepare datasets for team use, and how it will support teams after events so that collaborations mature into coherent research programs and future prevention intervention efforts.

Funding is provided as a cooperative agreement with an award ceiling listed at $350,000 (as provided in the source data). The original closing date is 2024-11-13, and the opportunity was created on 2024-07-05. While the expected number of awards is not specified in the provided source excerpt, the structure indicates NIH is aiming to seed capacity and coordination that can generate multiple downstream projects, proposals, and translational products. Because it is a U24, applicants should expect to propose operational plans, governance, engagement strategies, event design, milestones, evaluation metrics (such as number and diversity of teams formed, products generated, follow-on grants submitted, cross-sector partnerships established, and evidence of sustained collaboration), and plans for dissemination of resources or learnings to the broader prevention research community.

Eligibility is broad and includes many organization types. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The opportunity also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicants such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations), Indian/Native American tribal governments other than federally recognized entities, and U.S. territories or possessions. This breadth signals NIH interest in bringing in a wide range of institutional perspectives and community contexts, which is often essential for prevention research that must be responsive to diverse populations and real-world implementation settings.

In short, this funding opportunity is designed to speed up and strengthen the translation pipeline between population-level evidence about substance use and the practical work of prevention intervention development and implementation. It does so by funding centers that convene and support multidisciplinary teams through structured, highly interactive collaboration models (sandpits and hackathons) and by requiring sustained network-building so that the collaborations endure long enough to produce meaningful prevention-relevant outputs and future research programs, without directly supporting clinical trials under this mechanism.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Translational Resource Centers to Build Bridges Between Substance Use Epidemiology/Etiology and Prevention Intervention Research (U24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.279.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-11-13. (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 $350,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA DA 25 085

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