Developmental AIDS Research Center on Mental Health and HIV/AIDS (P30 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 24 164

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 24 164

The Developmental AIDS Research Center on Mental Health and HIV/AIDS (P30 Clinical Trial Optional), funding opportunity number PAR-24-164, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant led by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Division of AIDS Research (DAR). It supports the creation or strengthening of HIV/AIDS Research Centers (often referred to as ARCs) through a P30 "Center Core" mechanism. The main purpose is not to fund a single research project, but to build and maintain shared infrastructure, resources, and expertise that make multiple HIV and mental health research projects more productive, higher impact, and better coordinated. In practice, this kind of award is designed to help institutions organize interdisciplinary teams, share specialized tools and services, and accelerate the pace and quality of research that aligns with the NIMH mission at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and mental health.

The NOFO places a strong emphasis on innovative, interdisciplinary science across a wide range of research areas. It explicitly welcomes work spanning basic science, NeuroHIV (the neurological and neuropsychiatric dimensions of HIV), behavioral and social science, integrated biobehavioral research, and more applied lines of inquiry such as clinical, translational, and implementation science. The "clinical trial optional" label means applicants may propose center activities that include clinical trials, but they are not required to do so; the center can be built around infrastructure that supports clinical trials, non-trial clinical research, or preclinical and population-level work, as long as the overall focus is high impact HIV/AIDS and mental health research relevant to NIMH priorities.

Because this is a P30 infrastructure award, the expected deliverable is a well-justified set of "cores" and shared services that enable multiple investigators and projects to succeed. Typical center components in P30 programs often include administrative coordination, shared research support services, methods and statistics support, community and stakeholder engagement capacity, clinical research support, data management, training and mentoring activities, and mechanisms for fostering new collaborations or pilot work. The underlying idea is to reduce duplication, raise scientific rigor and consistency across projects, and create an environment where emerging and established investigators can generate stronger proposals, publish more impactful findings, and move evidence into practice more efficiently.

Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations other than federally recognized governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The opportunity also calls out several institution types as eligible, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, tribal governments other than federally recognized, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it clearly restricts foreign involvement: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities are not eligible to apply, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as NIH defines them in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed.

This is a discretionary grant in the health funding category, listed under CFDA 93.242. The opportunity was created on 2024-03-22, and the original closing date is 2026-08-25. An explicit award ceiling is not provided in the source information you shared, and the expected number of awards is also not specified there, which typically means applicants need to rely on the full NOFO details and NIH budget guidance for the P30 mechanism when developing a realistic budget request and scope.

Overall, PAR-24-164 is aimed at institutions that want to build a durable, shared research infrastructure for HIV/AIDS and mental health science, with the expectation that the center will enable multiple lines of inquiry and multiple investigators to produce stronger, more coordinated, and more impactful research than they could achieve working in isolation.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Developmental AIDS Research Center on Mental Health and HIV/AIDS (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-03-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-08-25. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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.

Apply for PAR 24 164

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