Limited Competition: Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA RM 23 011

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 23 011

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is soliciting applications under a limited competition announcement to fund a Consortium Coordinating Center (CCC) for the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC). This opportunity is issued as RFA-RM-23-011 and uses the cooperative agreement mechanism (U24), which signals that the awardee will work in close partnership with NIH staff and the broader MoTrPAC program rather than operating as a fully independent, investigator-initiated project. The activity area is health (CFDA 93.310). The announcement was created on March 22, 2023, with an original application due date of May 15, 2023. It is labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applicants should not propose a new clinical trial under this award; instead, the center is meant to coordinate and support the consortium's existing, IRB-approved protocol-driven work.

At its core, the CCC is intended to be the operational backbone of MoTrPAC. The coordinating center is expected to provide overall coordination across consortium components, ensuring that multi-site activities run consistently and efficiently. A major part of the role is monitoring implementation of the study protocol, which includes tracking whether participating sites are following the uniform, consortium-wide protocol and maintaining alignment with required procedures and timelines. The CCC is also responsible for coordinating the collection, management, and distribution of both data and biological samples generated through MoTrPAC studies. In practice, this typically involves building and maintaining standardized workflows for data intake, quality control, harmonization, secure storage, access governance, and fulfillment processes for data and biospecimen distribution to approved users. Another explicit goal is contributing to the creation of a lasting research resource, meaning the coordinating center should help ensure that MoTrPAC outputs are curated, well-documented, and usable by future researchers beyond the original study teams, consistent with NIH expectations for data sharing, stewardship, and long-term value.

Because MoTrPAC is an established consortium with a uniform IRB-approved protocol, the CCC awardee is expected to operate within that existing framework rather than introducing a separate protocol. The announcement also emphasizes that research approaches should align with guidance from the consortium's Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the analysis of clinical trial data. Even though the U24 itself does not allow proposing a new clinical trial, the CCC will be working with data arising from clinical trial-like activities within MoTrPAC, and NIH is clearly setting expectations that analyses, monitoring, and reporting practices must follow DSMB direction and established oversight standards.

Eligibility is tightly restricted due to the limited competition design. Only current MoTrPAC clinical coordinating center awardees are eligible to apply, which effectively limits competition to organizations already holding specific MoTrPAC coordinating center awards. Although the source listing mentions "Small businesses" under eligible applicants, the decisive eligibility language in the description is that only current MoTrPAC clinical coordinating center awardees can apply, so an applicant would need to already be in that role to be considered responsive. The opportunity also excludes foreign participation in several ways: non-U.S. (foreign) institutions cannot apply; non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible; and foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement are not allowed. In other words, the work and institutional participation must be fully domestic under NIH definitions, with no foreign components.

Overall, this NOFO is aimed at sustaining and strengthening MoTrPAC by funding a central coordinating entity that keeps the consortium aligned on protocol execution, ensures high-quality and consistent data and biospecimen handling across sites, and helps turn MoTrPAC outputs into a durable, well-governed resource that other scientists can use in the future. The cooperative agreement structure underscores that NIH expects substantial involvement in coordinating priorities, oversight, and consortium-level decision-making as the coordinating center carries out these responsibilities.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.310.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-03-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-05-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

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