Grants for Small Businesses

This funding opportunity provides support for U.S.-based organizations to develop and implement effective substance use prevention services within various community systems, targeting individuals at risk or already misusing substances.

This funding opportunity supports U.S.-based organizations in implementing and sustaining effective strategies to prevent substance misuse and use disorders, particularly targeting individuals at risk but not yet diagnosed with a substance use disorder.

To establish a Data Center to coordinate and analyze single cell and other molecular data sets generated by Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV (SCORCH) and other NIDA-funded HIV and substance use disorder projects and to make the data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) to enable secondary analyses by the scientific community. This is a non-competitive funding opportunity intended to fund a single award. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is announcing its intent to issue a single source cooperative agreement award to the University of Maryland Baltimore to 1. Coordinate all the data generated by the SCORCH consortium, 2. Analyze all the data generated by the SCORCH consortium, 3. Perform necessary SCORCH program scientific outreach activities, and 4. Support SCORCH consortium communication. The current SCORCH Data Center is integrated with the rest of the SCORCH consortium and is familiar with the current data, metadata, and data quality metric standards and data pipelines. They were involved in establishing these standards and have been/are working closely with key personnel on SCORCH data generation projects to ensure data and associated metadata are deposited. Continued support of the University of Maryland Baltimore SCORCH Data Center to complete the SCORCH Program activities will enable seamless SCORCH data coordination and archiving, will prevent disruption in data analysis, and will allow continued support of the currently existing SCORCH website which is the scientific face of the SCORCH program. Background Single Nucleus Assays: Molecular analysis of brain tissue typically relies on ensemble averaging of heterogenous mixtures of cell types within a specific brain region. However, technological advances enable molecular characterization of large numbers of individual cells. Single cell approaches can uncover effects on rarer cell types and have the potential to reveal cellular differences resulting from specific niche environments or transitory cellular states. Some single cell technologies in use include single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), single nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq), single nucleus assay for transposase-accessible chromatin-sequencing (snATAC-seq), single cell Hi-C, and spatial genomics approaches such as multiplexed fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Individual researchers as well as large project teams including the Human Cell Atlas, Common Fund Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP), and NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) are exploiting these technologies to understand the diversity of cell types within the human body as well as their functions in human health and disease. Addictive Substances. Chronic exposure to addictive substances can lead to long term changes in brain function and to substance use disorders (SUDs). Many known brain regions are involved in addictive processes including the prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area, striatum, insula, amygdala, and hippocampus. Despite great advances in our understanding of molecular pathways and circuits involved in SUDs, there remains limited knowledge concerning 1. The specific types, numbers, and gene expression profiles of cells within these brain regions and 2. How exposures to addictive substances influence the states and functions of these cells. HIV/ART. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has, in large part, transformed the HIV epidemic into a chronic manageable disease in the United States. However, people living with HIV remain at higher risk for impaired cognitive functions (e.g. HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder [HAND]). Use of addictive substances by HIV-infected individuals has the potential to further alter immune function and/or exacerbate HIV-related CNS impairment. However, little is known about 1. The effects of persistent HIV infection or HIV treatment regimens on gene expression in specific CNS cell types in key brain regions, or 2. How chronic addictive substance use might modify these effects. SCORCH. The Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV (SCORCH) consortium was formed to begin to address scientific questions about addiction and HIV/ART questions at the single cell level. Fifteen funded SCORCH data generation projects (NIDA SCORCH Program) have been generating brain snRNA-seq or snATAC-seq data. Four brain types are being assayed by all groups: control, drug-exposed/SUD, HIV+, and HIV+drug exposed/SUD. Emphasis is on individuals with chronic exposure to opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, or cannabinoids. Four groups are generating data from non-human primate brain, four from rodent brain, and nine from human post-mortem brain with some data from human organoids as well. The SCORCH data coordination, analysis, and scientific outreach center was established to standardize and share the single cell molecular HIV/SUD data generated by this program by ensuring that the data is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Harmonized molecular and single cell HIV/SUD data sets will enable data mining by the scientific community to uncover new HIV and/or SUD mechanisms and to identify candidate pathways for therapeutic intervention. The SCORCH Data Center will also enable future mining of these data sets as improved data science and information technology approaches are developed, maximizing NIDA ’s original investment in the data generating activities. Scope. The proposed project should be framed to answer one or more vexing questions about persistent HIV infection in the brain. In addition, the major thrust of the proposed project MUST: Propose to coordinate and analyze single cell and other molecular data sets generated by SCORCH and other NIDA-funded HIV and substance use disorder projects. Propose to make this data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) to enable secondary analyses by the scientific community. Applicants are encouraged to contact NIDA program staff to answer any questions. Key activities of the SCORCH Data Center will be to: Work with SCORCH consortium members to ensure that all data and metadata have standardized formats and associated quality metrics and have been processed through standardized pipelines. Associate new SCORCH data with clinical metadata from the appropriate brain banks or tissue sources. Work closely with the SCORCH consortium PD(s)/PI(s) to analyze the data generated, to develop analysis strategies to integrate the datasets in synergistic ways with other relevant datasets, and to share useful information and insights about these data with the broader biomedical research community. It is anticipated that the SCORCH Data Center will lead an integrative analysis of all the SCORCH single cell data in a capstone publication. Develop strategies to enable and improve coordination, analysis, and sharing of spatial genomics and related data types. Develop strategies to enable and improve coordination, analysis, and sharing of data types from spatially and/or functionally resolved cellular assemblies relevant to HIV or addiction. Examples include but are not limited to anatomical structures, functional networks and ensembles characterized under PAR-20-241/ RFA-DA-22-011/ RFA-DA-23-035 “Large Scale Integrated Mapping and Molecular Profiling of Cell Ensembles and/or Cell-Types Mediating Opioid Action in the Rodent Brain” and RFA-DA-23-036 “Investigating the Effects of Addictive Substances on Brain Developmental Trajectories Using Innovative Scalable Methods for Quantification of Cell Identity, Lineage and Connectivity.” Archive raw and processed datasets generated by the SCORCH consortium in appropriate NIH-supported archives. Maintain, and improve a website to serve as a community-wide nexus for SCORCH protocols, assay and data standards, raw and processed data, data pipelines, and other resources generated by the consortium. Facilitate SCORCH data use by the scientific community for data mining to identify candidates for SUD and/or HIV therapeutic targets or to investigate SUD or HIV mechanisms. Provide user-friendly access to consortium data and by identifying or generating robust tools to enable both naive and experienced investigators to query, integrate, analyze, and model the data. Develop workshops and implement a community outreach strategy to inform the research community of the accomplishments of the SCORCH program and disseminate information about the community resources and data generated by the program. Coordinate SCORCH consortium activities by organizing steering committee meetings, workgroup meetings, external program consultant logistics, and other awardee meetings as needed. Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives : This NOFO requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP) as described in NOT-MH-21-310, submitted as Other Project Information as an attachment (see Section IV). Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the NOFO instructions carefully and view the available PEDP guidance material. The PEDP will be assessed as part of the scientific and technical peer review evaluation, as well as considered among programmatic matters with respect to funding decisions.

This funding opportunity supports innovative research aimed at developing new strategies for curing HIV at the start of antiretroviral therapy, targeting researchers and institutions focused on reducing the HIV reservoir and improving immune responses.

This funding opportunity supports researchers exploring innovative strategies to achieve long-lasting HIV remission at the start of antiretroviral therapy, focusing on basic and preclinical studies rather than clinical trials.

CAL FIRE's Wood Products and Bioenergy team seeks to maintain and enhance the wood products infrastructure of California to promote healthy resilient forests throughout the state by supporting a diverse set of business development and workforce development projects.  ; Eligible business development projects include facilities, operations, and professional services that support the restoration of healthy, resilient forests.   Eligible workforce development projects include universities, colleges, government and community organizations, and businesses that aim to increase workforce capacity in the fields of logging, fuels treatment, transportation, manufacturing, or other support services that bolster the development of a resilient forest sector workforce.   Research and development projects related to both business and workforce development will also be considered. Check out the Wood Products website and subscribe for updates.     

This funding opportunity supports postdoctoral researchers in biomedical and behavioral fields, providing mentorship and resources to help them develop into independent scientists.

This funding opportunity supports research to improve cancer care and outcomes for sexual and gender minority survivors by addressing their unique challenges and engaging community partners in the process.

This funding opportunity supports predoctoral students in dual-degree programs at institutions without NIH-funded training programs, helping them pursue research and clinical training to become future physician-scientists.

This funding opportunity supports established biomedical data repositories and knowledgebases to enhance their operations and community engagement, ensuring they remain vital resources for researchers in the biomedical field.

This funding opportunity supports the development of new or improved biomedical data repositories and knowledgebases to enhance research and promote data sharing in the biomedical community.

This funding opportunity provides researchers access to valuable biospecimens from a major study on tobacco use and health, enabling them to conduct important studies that support tobacco regulation and public health.

This funding opportunity supports experienced researchers looking to expand their expertise or shift their career focus through advanced training and research experiences at various institutions.

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications for projects to expand, improve, or transform the utility of mammalian cancer and tumor models for translational research. With this NOFO, the NCI intends to encourage submission of projects devoted to demonstrating that mammalian models or their derivatives used for translational research are robust representations of human biology, are appropriate to test questions of clinical importance, and provide reliable information for patients' benefit. These practical goals contrast with the goals of many mechanistic, NCI-supported R01 projects that employ mammals, or develop and use mammalian cancer models, transplantation tumor models, or models derived from mammalian or human tissues or cells for hypothesis-testing, non-clinical research. Among many other possible endeavors, applicants in response to this FOA could propose demonstrations of how to overcome translational deficiencies of mammalian oncology models, define new uses of mammalian models or their genetics for unexplored translational challenges, advance standard practices for use of translational models, test approaches to validate and credential models, or challenge current practices for how models are used translationally

This funding opportunity supports students enrolled in dual-degree medical and research training programs, helping them develop into independent physician-scientists through mentored research and clinical training.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) aims to support research on interdisciplinary population approaches to increasing awareness of the relationship between alcohol and cancer risk, understanding and changing social norms related to alcohol consumption, developing and/or evaluating alcohol policy approaches, and the development, testing, and implementation of population-level interventions to reduce alcohol-related cancer risk. Applications that address multiple levels of consumption, such as moderate and heavy drinking, are of particular interest, as well as those focusing on alcohol use disorder (AUD) from the perspective of cancer prevention and control. Proposals addressing understudied areas are encouraged, as is attention to underrepresented minority (URM) populations experiencing cancer and alcohol-related disparities such as American Indian, Alaskan Native, and sexual and gender minority populations.

This funding opportunity supports U.S.-based researchers and institutions in various physics subfields to conduct innovative experimental and theoretical projects that advance scientific knowledge and promote workforce diversity.

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits applications for identification of small molecules that function to elucidate the biology of disease as chemical probes or function as agonists or antagonists of disease target(s) for therapy or immunotherapy. The NOFO is intended to support discovery research for the identification of validated hits relevant to health-related outcomes of participating NIH Institutes. Stages of discovery research covered by this NOFO include: 1) assay development for specific biological targets and disease mechanisms relevant to the mission of participating NIH Institutes with the intent to screen for small molecule compounds that show potential as probes for use in advancing knowledge about the known targets, identifying new targets, or as pre-therapeutic leads; 2) screen implementation high throughput target-focused approaches or moderate throughput phenotypic- and fragment-based approaches to identify initial screening hits; 3) hit validation, including implementation of secondary assays that are orthogonal to the primary assay, advanced cheminformatics analysis and initial medicinal chemistry inspection to prioritize the hit set, and follow-up assays to characterize mode and mechanism of action of the validated hits; 4) hit-to-lead optimization, including SAR to optimize target engagement, selectivity and to minimize chemical liabilities, ADME, PK and PD studies, and, if appropriate, in vivo modeling to test efficacy or biological effects.

This funding opportunity supports experienced laboratory scientists engaged in cancer research within NCI-funded projects, providing salary support and travel funds to enhance their contributions without requiring them to become independent investigators.

This grant provides salary support for scientists with advanced degrees who contribute specialized expertise to NCI-funded cancer research programs within core facilities, promoting career stability without requiring independent investigator roles.