Limited Competition: National Biocontainment Laboratories (NBLs) Operations Support (UC7 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has reissued a funding opportunity to provide operations support for the National Biocontainment Laboratories (NBLs). These facilities, located at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, and Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, were originally established in 2006 and have since been supported through successive funding cycles. Their mission is to serve as national resources for conducting preclinical and laboratory research on hazardous biological agents and to support NIAID’s biodefense research priorities. Because of the extraordinary costs associated with maintaining Biosafety Level-4 facilities, which far exceed those of typical university laboratories, NIH provides direct operational support to sustain their function and availability. The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), RFA-AI-25-013, is to continue supporting the infrastructure and operations required to safely conduct research at the NBLs. Specifically, support covers facility maintenance and operations, biosecurity, compliance with environmental health and biosafety regulations, regulatory oversight, and integrated specialized services such as veterinary and imaging support. By maintaining these operations, the NBLs are expected to provide maximum-containment laboratory access to NIH-funded investigators, partner institutions, and other qualified researchers, thereby enabling critical work on diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Additionally, the NBLs must remain capable of rapidly realigning resources to respond to national biodefense emergencies, assisting federal, state, and local authorities in response efforts. Applications under this program must be submitted by either Boston University or the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, as no other organizations are eligible. Each institution may submit only one application. Projects funded through this mechanism may not propose clinical trials, as the activity code UC7 is limited to operations support. Eligible investigators must be affiliated with the applicant institutions and must comply with NIH’s standard registration requirements in SAM.gov, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov. Institutions must designate a Project Director/Principal Investigator with an active eRA Commons ID, and all registration steps must be completed prior to submission. The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, under which NIH staff will play a substantial role in guiding and monitoring supported activities. NIAID intends to commit up to $23 million in total costs in FY 2026, supporting two awards. Application budgets should not exceed $10 million in direct costs per year, and the maximum project period is five years. Funds will be provided to support only partial costs of biocontainment operations, and recipient institutions must develop reimbursement models to cover direct research expenses. Matching funds are not required for this opportunity. Applications must be submitted electronically using ASSIST or an approved institutional system-to-system solution. The application package requires multiple components, including an Overall plan, an Administrative Core, and specific Operations Support Cores addressing maintenance, biosecurity, biosafety, regulatory compliance, and specialized services. Strict adherence to NIH application instructions is required, including page limits for each component. Applications not meeting these requirements may be delayed or deemed ineligible. The due date for applications is November 7, 2025, by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. Scientific merit reviews will occur in March 2026, followed by advisory council review in May 2026. The earliest anticipated start date for awards is July 2026. This NOFO will expire on November 8, 2025. Recipients will be required to participate in the NBL/RBL Network, attend annual meetings, and maintain community engagement. They must also comply with NIH’s updated policies on data management, genomic data sharing, and restrictions on gain-of-function research as directed by Executive Order 14292. For further information, scientific and research inquiries should be directed to Fayna Diaz San Segundo at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (telephone 240-921-3931, email fayna.diazsansegundo@nih.gov). Grants management questions may be addressed to Jordan Kindbom, also at NIAID (telephone 240-669-2983, email jordan.kindbom@nih.gov). Questions regarding submission procedures may be directed to the NIH eRA Service Desk or Grants.gov support contacts as listed in the NOFO.