Funding Opportunity Number: PA-25-246
Deadline: February 16, 2025, March 16, 2025
Description
A major goal of the National Plan to address Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD) is to accelerate the development of treatments that would prevent, delay, or reverse the course of the disease and improve early diagnosis; yet, there is a shortage of scientists to conduct the wide variety of necessary innovative and interdisciplinary research projects, including clinical, translational, prevention, and treatment research on AD/ADRD. This Small Research Grant program will address the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) Milestone 4.J: “Expand existing and create new integrative training programs for early career neuroscience, behavioral and social science researchers that include training in aging biology, systems biology, geriatrics, all aspects of data science as well as traditional and emerging drug discovery disciplines. These efforts should include cross-disciplinary training programs in AD, aging, epidemiology, neuropsychology, environmental health, genomics, and data science to enhance the workforce needed for research on gene-environment interactions in AD and AD health disparities.” A major barrier to non-AD researchers obtaining an R01 grant to conduct AD/ADRD research is the lack of critical preliminary data. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is intended to help them overcome this barrier.
The overall goal of this NOFO is to support important and innovative research in areas in which more scientific investigation is needed to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care for AD/ADRD. The aim is to encourage the next generation of researchers to pursue research and academic careers in AD/ADRD. Another aim is to stimulate novel research ideas from researchers in other fields.
NIA expects applications from investigators who have expertise in their research field but have not had a major award in AD/ADRD. Examples of major awards from NIH include DP1, DP2, DP5, R01, R37, R56, RF1, RL1, U01 and R35, as well as serving as a PI/PD on Centers and Program Project grants. NIA anticipates that at least half of the awards will be made to early stage investigators (ESIs) to achieve the goal of fostering their development. Each PI is eligible to receive up to one award through this program.
Objectives
- Advance ESIs committed to pursuing careers in the field of AD/ADRD and aging research, including all qualified researchers from a variety of training and professional backgrounds.
- Generate high-quality research projects from junior faculty in genetic, biological, clinical, behavioral, social, and economic research related to AD/ADRD.
- Advance opportunities for ESIs to launch research careers focusing on AD/ADRD by helping ESIs accrue pilot data to subsequently submit competitive applications for larger, independent funding awards.
- Build a pipeline of early career investigators committed to AD/ADRD research.
- Invite clinical research investigators who are new to AD/ADRD research to pursue topic(s) focused on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or management of AD/ADRD within their respective fields.
- Encourage an infusion of investigators from other health research areas to pursue important and novel approaches to research in AD/ADRD.
- Enhance opportunities for networking, collaboration, and retention in the field.
- Enhance workforce diversity by encouraging individuals from nationally underrepresented groups to apply.
This NOFO will support projects on AD/ADRD covering a wide array of topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Research aimed at understanding the AD/ADRD trajectory for persons with dementia and their caregivers, including studies of prevention, diagnosis, communication, and/or management of specific acute or chronic comorbid conditions in persons with AD/ADRD.
- Basic science research in AD/ADRD to elucidate systemic, non-neuronal, or environmental factors associated with AD/ADRD including microbiome; exercise; nutrition; environmental toxicants; traumatic brain injury; circadian rhythms (in both peripheral and central organs); cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, immune system, and metabolic mechanisms; alterations in the blood-brain barrier; and the role of neuroinflammation in AD/ADRD.
- Elucidation of biological underpinnings and molecular pathways in sensory (visual, auditory, chemosensory, somatosensory, pain) and motor systems and/or affective processes that may be associated with AD/ADRD initiation, progression, or outcome.
- Social, behavioral, psychological, and economic research on AD/ADRD health disparities; cognitive and dementia epidemiology, including cross-national comparisons; investigations of behavioral and social mechanisms that operate as risk or protective factors for AD/ADRD; measurement of AD/ADRD-related cognitive and functional changes; non-pharmacological interventions for dementia prevention, dementia care, and caregiving; and research on the economic impact of dementia on individuals, families, health systems, and society (learn more about NIA’s AD/ADRD research priorities.
- Early Stage (Stage 0 or I of the NIH Stage Model) clinical trials that capitalize on and integrate basic research to inform the development of efficacious interventions, defined by their governing principles. Proposed projects may be focused on individuals, dyads, families, communities, organizations, and/or systems.
- Systems biology approaches involving repeated cycles of experimental data generation, analysis, and integration; modeling of system-wide molecular network structure and dynamics; and validation through predictions of responses to perturbations of experimental conditions or alteration of selected components of the network. Use of genetic, omics, and other types of data from existing molecular profiling studies is strongly encouraged, particularly where AD/ADRD endophenotypes can be defined. Development of innovative computational approaches for integration of multiple data types generated by high-throughput experimental technologies such as long-read genetic sequencing approaches could be supported if justified appropriately.
- Exposomics research involving data measured from various physical, chemical, social, psychological, and economic exposures across multiple levels and across the life course in the etiology and social disparities of AD/ADRD. Of particular interest is research to systematically analyze phenotypic, metabolomic, and epigenomic data in response to physical, built, social, and environmental exposures to inform the interplay between genes, behavior, biology, and environment, and to assess its impact on AD/ADRD outcomes.
- Health disparities research to understand the prevalence of AD/ADRD in populations that experience health disparities, including studies to investigate disease pathways that contribute to demographic diversity in the biology and neuropathology of AD/ADRD; studies to estimate the effect of educational attainment and occupational exposures on dementia risk, diagnosis, and cognitive assessment; disease pathways that create or sustain AD/ADRD disparities; and the unique challenges related to the provision of advanced AD/ADRD care in disparity populations, including disparities in access, utilization, and quality of care.
- Evaluation of existing clinical guidelines, standards of care, and/or preventive medicine recommendations for persons with AD/ADRD.
For more information, please see the opportunity webpage.