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.
