NIDDK Cooperative Centers of Excellence in Hematology (U54 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 19 005

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 19 005

The NIDDK Cooperative Centers of Excellence in Hematology (CCEH) opportunity (RFA-DK-19-005) is a National Institutes of Health cooperative agreement (U54) focused on building and operating shared, high-impact research infrastructure for the nonmalignant hematology community. The central aim is to strengthen the national, multidisciplinary effort to understand normal blood formation (hematopoiesis) and to accelerate research on noncancerous blood disorders by making advanced technologies, specialized expertise, and hard-to-maintain resources broadly accessible. A major theme is efficiency: the program is intended to improve cost-effectiveness by centralizing the preparation of critical reagents, maintaining state-of-the-art shared resources, and supporting complex, multi-step molecular biology assays that are often too expensive or technically demanding for individual labs to sustain on their own.

Under this announcement, each funded Center is expected to function as a resource hub rather than a single-project research grant. Every CCEH must include, at minimum, three Biomedical Research Cores, plus an Administrative Core and an Enrichment Program. The Biomedical Research Cores are the engines of the Center, providing services, platforms, and consultative expertise to support investigators in the broader community. While the specific core topics can vary by Center strengths, the intent is that these cores offer tangible, cutting-edge capabilities and/or unique reagents that enable or substantially improve externally driven hematology research. The Administrative Core typically provides governance, oversight, coordination, budgeting, communications, and evaluation to keep the Center functioning smoothly and to ensure that core resources are delivered reliably and equitably. The Enrichment Program is meant to expand the field by fostering training, career development, outreach, and cross-disciplinary engagement, with an emphasis on supporting early-career scientists and attracting established investigators from adjacent domains into nonmalignant hematology research.

A defining feature of the U54 mechanism is that it is a cooperative agreement, meaning NIDDK expects substantial scientific and programmatic involvement during the award. Centers are not intended to operate in isolation. Instead, funded CCEH sites are expected to collaborate closely with one another and with the NIDDK Hematology Central Coordinating Center, and together they form the broader NIDDK Hematology Centers Program. In practice, that collaborative structure is designed to promote harmonized approaches, shared standards where appropriate, coordinated dissemination of resources, and active facilitation of collaborations both within and across Centers and with the wider research community. The program’s vision is that, by pooling advanced equipment, specialized assays, and expert staff into nationally visible Centers, the hematology community gains faster, more reliable access to capabilities that can otherwise become bottlenecks for discovery and translation.

This funding opportunity is explicitly designated “Clinical Trial Not Allowed,” which signals that applications should not propose clinical trials as part of the funded scope. The work is expected to center on resource development, enabling technologies, shared services, and collaborative infrastructure that supports biomedical research in nonmalignant hematology and normal hematopoiesis, rather than testing interventions in humans under a clinical trial framework.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations: state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), excluding higher education where applicable); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The announcement also highlights 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, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. Foreign institutions (non-U.S. entities) are not eligible to apply as applicant organizations, but non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations may participate, and foreign components are allowed as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, which can enable specific international collaborations or specialized contributions when justified.

From the posted source details, the opportunity falls under the NIH CFDA number 93.847, uses the cooperative agreement funding instrument, and was listed with an award ceiling of $650,000 (noting that final budgets in NIH awards are typically subject to negotiation and to the FOA’s detailed budget instructions and allowable cost policies). The original closing date shown is June 30, 2020, and the FOA was created on September 12, 2019. Overall, the program is designed to create a coordinated national network of hematology Centers that lower barriers to sophisticated research, standardize and disseminate key tools and assays, and deliberately grow the workforce and collaborative culture needed to advance nonmalignant hematology.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIDDK Cooperative Centers of Excellence in Hematology (U54 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): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-09-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-06-30. (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 $650,000.00 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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