Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Assessment: Data Management and Coordinating Unit (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA CA 23 019

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 23 019

This funding opportunity, titled "Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Assessment: Data Management and Coordinating Unit (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (RFA-CA-23-019), is an NIH cooperative agreement focused on strengthening the infrastructure behind the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). EDRN is a long-running national program aimed at discovering, developing, and validating biomarkers and imaging approaches that can detect cancers at earlier stages and help translate those discoveries into clinically useful tests. A key point in the description is that EDRN already has a track record of completing more than 10 multicenter validation studies, which signals that this program operates at a scale where strong coordination, harmonized data practices, and centralized support are essential to keep multi-site science consistent and usable.

The specific purpose of this award is to support a Data Management and Coordinating Unit for a "precompetitive" collaboration around liquid biopsy approaches for early cancer assessment. In this context, "precompetitive" generally means the work is intended to build shared resources, standards, datasets, and coordinated processes that benefit the broader research community rather than advancing a single proprietary product. Liquid biopsy is a major area of interest in early detection because it relies on minimally invasive samples (often blood) to look for signals of cancer, such as circulating tumor DNA, RNA, proteins, or other molecular patterns. A dedicated coordinating and data unit typically exists to make sure participating sites can contribute data in consistent formats, apply common definitions, follow shared protocols, and generate datasets that are high quality, analyzable, and ultimately usable for validation efforts.

Administratively, the mechanism is a U24 cooperative agreement, which means NIH staff are expected to have substantial involvement compared with a standard grant. The activity category is listed under Education/Health and the CFDA number is 93.394. The opportunity is explicitly "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applicants should not propose a project that meets NIH's definition of a clinical trial as the primary activity under this award. Instead, the work is geared toward coordination, data management, and network-support functions that enable research studies and validation efforts across the EDRN structure without initiating a clinical trial through this particular mechanism.

Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based organizations and includes state, county, and local governments; special districts; independent school districts; public and state-controlled universities; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses; and other entities. The opportunity also highlights additional eligible applicant types such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), along with faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it clearly excludes non-domestic applicants: foreign organizations and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as NIH defines them) are not allowed.

Key logistics included in the listing are an original closing date of January 10, 2023, and an award ceiling of $450,000. The notice also lists the expected awards field but does not provide a number in the text provided. Overall, this opportunity is best understood as NIH investing in the backbone operations for a national early-detection collaboration: building and running the shared data and coordination capabilities needed to support rigorous, multicenter biomarker validation efforts in liquid biopsy for early cancer assessment.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Assessment: Data Management and Coordinating Unit (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): 93.394.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-10-31.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-01-10. (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 $450,000.00 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 CA 23 019

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