Limited Competition: Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Chemical Analysis Sites (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA RM 23 021

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 23 021

This funding opportunity, RFA-RM-23-021, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Notice of Funding Opportunity for a cooperative agreement (U24; clinical trial not allowed) to support Chemical Analysis Sites within the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC). MoTrPAC is an NIH Common Fund effort focused on understanding the molecular changes triggered by physical activity and identifying the biological "transducers" that convert exercise and related stimuli into measurable molecular signals across tissues and organ systems. The core idea behind this FOA is to keep a specialized network of analysis sites operating in a coordinated way so that biospecimens collected through the consortium can continue to be processed using high-quality, standardized, and consortium-aligned omics pipelines, producing datasets that are consistent, comparable, and broadly useful to the research community.

The competition is limited, meaning it is not open to new applicants. Only organizations that were previously funded as MoTrPAC Chemical Analysis Sites under the earlier solicitations RFA-RM-15-010 and RFA-RM-15-011 are eligible to apply. The intent is continuity: NIH is essentially extending or renewing the consortium's chemical and omics analysis capacity by re-engaging established sites that already have the workflows, quality systems, staff expertise, and consortium experience needed to analyze MoTrPAC tissues efficiently and according to shared standards. Even though the source listing mentions small businesses under eligible applicants, the eligibility in the description clearly emphasizes the restricted pool of prior awardees, which is typical for limited competition FOAs that aim to maintain an existing program infrastructure rather than create new capacity.

Awardees funded through this FOA are expected to actively participate in MoTrPAC consortium activities, not simply run analyses independently. Because the funding mechanism is a cooperative agreement, NIH staff generally have substantial involvement in oversight, coordination, and milestone-driven progress, and recipients are expected to collaborate closely with other consortium components. The work supported centers on continued analysis of tissues collected from human participants undergoing a physical activity intervention, with an emphasis on omics-based characterization. In practice, that typically includes generating high-dimensional molecular datasets (for example, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, or other chemical/omics readouts) from consortium biospecimens, following agreed-upon protocols for sample handling, measurement, normalization, and quality control.

A major deliverable under this FOA is the creation of well-curated datasets. This goes beyond producing raw instrument output and includes comprehensive quality assurance, annotation with appropriate metadata, harmonization with consortium data standards, and documentation sufficient for downstream interpretation. Awardees are also expected to contribute their finalized data products to a public consortium database so that the broader scientific community can access and reuse the results. In addition, these sites are not just data generators; they are expected to participate in consortium-wide data analysis efforts aimed at producing molecular "fingerprints" of physical activity. That consortium-level analysis is meant to identify candidate molecular transducers, meaning molecules, pathways, or molecular patterns that reliably reflect or mediate the biological effects of physical activity across time, intensity, and tissue context.

The FOA includes clear restrictions on foreign involvement. Non-U.S. (non-domestic) entities are not eligible to apply, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement are not allowed. These restrictions narrow participation to domestic institutions and domestic project components, which simplifies compliance, data governance, and coordination for a large, multi-site effort built around standardized biospecimen and data workflows.

From the administrative details provided, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and falls under the NIH health activity category, with CFDA number 93.310. The original application closing date was July 24, 2023, and the listed award ceiling is $350,000. The announcement was created on May 2, 2023. While the expected number of awards is not clearly specified in the provided excerpt, the limited competition nature implies a small set of possible awardees corresponding to the existing MoTrPAC Chemical Analysis Site awardees.

Overall, this FOA is designed to sustain and coordinate the consortium's chemical and omics analysis infrastructure so MoTrPAC can continue generating standardized, high-quality molecular datasets from human physical activity intervention tissues, rapidly sharing those datasets with the public, and collaboratively analyzing them to map the molecular signals that underlie the health effects of physical activity.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Chemical Analysis Sites (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 2023-05-02.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-07-24. (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 $350,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA RM 23 021

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