Building Infrastructure for Precision Medicine Research on Minority Health and Disparities in Alzheimers Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) (UH2/UH3 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA AG 23 020

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA AG 23 020

Building Infrastructure for Precision Medicine Research on Minority Health and Disparities in Alzheimers Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement funding opportunity (RFA-AG-23-020) designed to jump-start and support collaborative programs that create the practical, research-ready infrastructure needed to do precision medicine studies in Alzheimer-related conditions among populations that have been historically underrepresented in AD/ADRD research. The core idea is not simply to fund another standalone study, but to help teams assemble the foundational resources, partnerships, and integrated datasets that make it possible to conduct more informative, tailored, and equitable research on risk, progression, and outcomes in diverse communities that experience minority health challenges and health disparities.

A central emphasis of the opportunity is building infrastructure that supports precision medicine approaches, meaning the infrastructure should enable researchers to understand how a wide range of factors combine to influence AD/ADRD in different individuals and groups. The announcement highlights the importance of bringing together multiple kinds of data in a coordinated way, including neurobiological information (for example, biomarkers or other brain-related measures), environmental exposures, behavioral factors, and social science data that capture lived experience and structural drivers of health. In practice, the program is meant to catalyze integrated and expanded research that can better reflect real-world diversity, improve scientific validity for understudied groups, and create a platform for innovative future studies that would otherwise be hard to launch without shared resources and coordinated planning.

This is a discretionary health funding opportunity under CFDA 93.866, offered as a cooperative agreement. That structure matters because cooperative agreements typically involve substantial programmatic involvement from NIH compared to a standard grant mechanism, often including coordination expectations, milestone-driven progress, and active collaboration with NIH staff and potentially other awardees. The title also specifies "UH2/UH3" and "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," indicating the work is intended to focus on infrastructure development and related research activities that do not meet NIHs definition of a clinical trial. In other words, applicants should plan around building and strengthening the research ecosystem (data resources, recruitment and retention capabilities, harmonized measures, governance structures, and community-engaged research capacity) rather than proposing an interventional clinical trial.

The opportunity is broad in who can apply, which aligns with the goal of expanding representation and capacity across different settings. Eligible applicants include a wide range of U.S.-based organizations and government entities such as state, county, city or township governments, 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, public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, and Native American tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments. It also allows nonprofits (both with and without 501(c)(3) status), for-profit organizations other than small businesses, small businesses, and other entities. The announcement further calls out additional eligible applicant types that are especially relevant to disparity-focused research capacity building, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, tribal governments other than federally recognized ones, and U.S. territories or possessions. This breadth supports partnerships that can connect academic expertise with trusted community presence and culturally grounded engagement.

There are also strict limitations related to foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities or foreign institutions 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. These restrictions mean the project activities and organizational participation must remain domestic under NIH rules, which is important for applicants planning multi-site collaborations or data coordination across borders.

From a practical standpoint, the funding details included with the listing indicate an award ceiling of $350,000, with the original closing date listed as October 21, 2022, and the opportunity created on August 8, 2022. While the listing does not specify the exact number of expected awards in the provided text, the intent is clearly to seed multiple collaborative efforts that collectively strengthen the field's ability to conduct precision medicine research addressing minority health and disparities in AD/ADRD. Overall, the opportunity is best understood as an infrastructure-building push: it aims to help teams create durable resources and collaborative frameworks that make it possible to recruit, characterize, and follow understudied populations with richer, more multidimensional data, ultimately enabling more equitable and more precise Alzheimer and dementia research going forward.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Building Infrastructure for Precision Medicine Research on Minority Health and Disparities in Alzheimers Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) (UH2/UH3 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): 93.866.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-08-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-10-21. (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: 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 RFA AG 23 020

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