Limited Competition for the Continuation of the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Scientific and Data Coordinating Center (U24) | RFA DK 17 506

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 17 506

This NIH funding opportunity (RFA-DK-17-506) is a limited competition cooperative agreement (U24) designed to continue and extend the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) Study by supporting its Scientific and Data Coordinating Center (SDCC). CRIC is a long-running, multi-center, prospective observational cohort that began in 2001 and has enrolled about 5,500 adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Participants have been followed through annual in-person clinic visits along with interim phone contacts, creating a deep longitudinal dataset to study how CKD develops, progresses, and affects health over time.

The SDCC is positioned as the central hub that keeps the entire CRIC enterprise functioning and scientifically productive. Its responsibilities include leadership and coordination across the study network, study organization and operations, study design and implementation support, and end-to-end data functions such as data collection oversight, quality control, database management, and statistical analysis. In practice, the SDCC role is to ensure the cohort’s follow-up, measurements, and analyses are standardized across sites, that data are reliable and usable for high-impact research, and that the study group can execute the next phase of CRIC efficiently and consistently.

The opportunity is structured around a broader continuation of CRIC in which the Clinical Centers (seven sites) will keep following the already-enrolled participants under a separate funding announcement. Those Clinical Centers will emphasize developing and applying novel methods for clinical assessment of CKD and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. The SDCC-supported work is expected to integrate these new assessment tools with new analytic approaches so investigators can identify CKD “endophenotypes” (subtypes defined by measurable biological or clinical characteristics), evaluate how those subtypes relate to outcomes like CKD progression and acute kidney injury, and better characterize downstream cardiovascular complications and other sequelae. The larger aim is to generate clearer, more actionable insight into the course and consequences of CKD and its tight relationship with CVD, producing evidence that helps clinicians manage patients more effectively and shaping the design of future clinical trials intended to reduce the burden of kidney and cardiovascular disease.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary NIH program using the cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning NIH is expected to have substantial involvement in the project’s conduct compared with a typical research grant. The activity category is listed under health (and food and nutrition) and the CFDA number associated with the opportunity is 93.847. The listed award ceiling is $2,250,000, and the original closing date was October 26, 2017 (with the funding opportunity created on August 18, 2017). As a limited competition, it is intended for a narrow applicant pool connected to the continuation of the CRIC coordinating infrastructure rather than an open competition for entirely new coordinating centers.

Eligibility is broad across many domestic organization types, including state, county, and local governments; public and state-controlled and private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations (including 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) entities); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses; independent school districts; special district governments; and eligible tribal entities and tribal organizations. The announcement also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, foreign participation is explicitly restricted: non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) may not apply, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components as defined by NIH policy are not allowed.

Overall, the grant is essentially about keeping the CRIC Study’s core scientific and data backbone strong so the next project period can deliver more refined measurement, better analytic strategies, and clearer disease subtyping and risk prediction for CKD and related cardiovascular outcomes. The SDCC is expected to lead the study group in achieving these next-phase scientific goals by coordinating the network, maintaining high-quality data systems, and enabling rigorous analyses that translate a large, long-term cohort into findings that can guide clinical management and future interventional research.

• The 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 Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Scientific and Data Coordinating Center (U24)" 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 2017-08-18.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-10-26. (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 $2,250,000.00 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.

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