Special Alert: COVID-19 Research Opportunities

NIA is excited to support the launch of Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx, to catalyze the scientific community to improve COVID-19 testing technologies, capacity, and accessibility. As one of the four RADx components, RADx-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) will establish a network of community-engaged projects to improve access to and acceptance of testing in underserved and vulnerable populations.

As part of the RADx-UP initiative, NIH has released four funding opportunities for research on COVID-19 testing among underserved and/or vulnerable populations to both understand and close the disparity gap. NIA has signed on to participate in all four of these initiatives. These funding opportunities include:

Emergency competitive revision applications to existing awards for large consortia, multi-site trials, centers and other current networks that have adequate capacity, infrastructure, and established community-engaged relationships to support large-scale testing interventions or have the capacity to ramp up quickly to reach underserved or vulnerable populations.
Second, a complementary emergency competitive revision opportunity which shifts eligibility to collaborative and individual research awards, generally focused on underserved or vulnerable populations.
Emergency competitive revisions to solicit research to understand the social, ethical, and behavioral implications (SEBI) of COVID-19 testing in these populations.
A new Coordination and Data Collection Center (CDCC) award (U24), a key component of the consortium. The CDCC will serve as a national resource, working with NIH scientific staff and consortium members to provide overarching support and guidance in the following four domains: (1) Administrative Operations and Logistics, (2) COVID-19 Testing Technology, (3) Community and Health System Engagement and (4) Data Collection, Integration and Sharing.

Applications for this first phase will be accepted through August 2020 for FY20 funding. A second phase will be staggered to provide flexibility and to allow for adaption to the ever-changing needs that may be present as this pandemic evolves.

Learn more about the NIA COVID-19 response
Visit this webpage to learn about funding opportunities, accomodations for the grantee community, and more.