Limited Competition: Institutional Development Award (IDeA) for Clinical Translational Research (CTR) (P30 - CT Optional)

The Limited Competition: Institutional Development Award (IDeA) for Clinical & Translational Research (CTR) (P30 - CT Optional), funding opportunity PAR-27-056, is administered by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences within the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The IDeA program was established to strengthen biomedical research capacity in states and jurisdictions that historically received relatively low levels of NIH funding. This opportunity supports two tracks. The IDeA Clinical and Translational Research Development track, or CTR-D, is intended for health research organizations with limited clinical and translational research infrastructure that need to build capacity and develop their workforce. The IDeA Clinical and Translational Research Network track, or CTR-N, supports statewide or multi-state networks that already possess clinical and translational research infrastructure and seek to expand that infrastructure, strengthen their workforce, and coordinate clinical research activities. Each funded IDeA-CTR must integrate two committees and five required cores. The Internal Advisory Committee oversees major program activities, compliance, regulatory monitoring, and organizational support, while the External Advisory Committee provides outside scientific and administrative guidance. Required cores are the Administrative Core, Professional Development Core, Community Engagement and Outreach Core, Research Design, Compliance and Data Management Core, and Health Research Core. The Health Research Core supports a pathway from a six- to twelve-month Research Preparation Phase to Health Research Projects, including two-year Developmental Projects and, for CTR-N only, Multi-Site Collaborative Projects. Applications with a narrow disease or population focus are nonresponsive. CTR-D programs must phase in foundational core capacity before Health Research Core activities begin, while CTR-N programs may begin all core activities at the start of the award when existing capacity is adequately justified. CTR-D applications may request up to 1000000 dollars in direct costs in year one and up to 1750000 dollars in annual direct costs in years two through five, excluding consortium facilities and administrative costs. CTR-N applications may request up to 3000000 dollars in direct costs in year one and up to 3500000 dollars annually in years two through five under the same exclusion. The maximum project period is five years. Additional component restrictions apply. For example, CTR-D Health Research Core activities may request up to 750000 dollars annually in years two through five, while CTR-N may request up to 1250000 dollars annually in years two through five. Research Preparation Phases and individual Developmental Projects have specified 150000 dollar annual direct-cost caps, and CTR-N may request up to 500000 dollars for one or more Multi-Site Collaborative Projects. Funds cannot support collaborators at organizations in non-IDeA states or foreign sites except for permitted fee-for-service activities, and Health Research Project funds cannot be used for graduate student or postdoctoral stipends. Cost sharing is not required. Eligible organization types include public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status, small businesses and other for-profit organizations, state, county, city or township, special district, and tribal governments, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. However, IDeA-specific geographic and organizational restrictions substantially narrow eligibility. Every participating lead or partner organization must be located in Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wyoming. Lead organizations must already conduct externally funded clinical and translational research, and partners must be in the same state or multi-state region as the lead. Each IDeA-eligible state may have only one active IDeA-CTR-type award, each organization may participate in only one such award at a time, and organizations may not participate with an active Clinical and Translational Science Award. Foreign organizations and funded foreign components are not eligible. Only one application per institution is allowed. Applications must follow the NIH Multi-Project application instructions and the program-specific requirements of this NOFO. Applicants must use NIH ASSIST or an institutional system-to-system solution to prepare and submit through Grants.gov and then track the application through eRA Commons. Required registrations must be completed before submission. The application contains an Overall component plus the five required cores and includes applicable SF424 forms, senior and key personnel information, biographical sketches, research strategies, budgets, organizational letters of support, resource sharing information, a Data Management and Sharing Plan when required, and human subjects and clinical trials information when applicable. The Overall Research Strategy must address program goals, organizational structure and governance, and existing clinical and translational research capacity. Applications are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through NIH peer review, including Significance, Investigators, Innovation, Approach, Environment, and specific criteria for each required core. Funding decisions also consider programmatic priorities, potential to address urgent state health concerns, geographic distribution among IDeA states, and availability of funds. The opportunity was posted August 19, 2026, and opens for applications September 15, 2026. The first application deadline is October 15, 2026, followed by January 28, 2027, May 28, 2027, September 28, 2027, January 28, 2028, May 30, 2028, September 28, 2028, January 29, 2029, and May 30, 2029. Applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. The first cycle is expected to undergo scientific merit review in March 2027, Advisory Council review in May 2027, and have an earliest start date of July 2027. Subsequent cycles have corresponding review and start dates through April 2030. The NOFO expires May 31, 2029. Scientific or research questions may be directed to the NIGMS IDeA CTR program at NIGMS_IDeA-CTR@mail.nih.gov. Financial and grants management questions may be directed to NIGMSRCBGABNOFO@nih.gov.

Choose and clearly justify the CTR-D or CTR-N track based on current research capacity. Keep the research scope broad enough to address important state health concerns because narrow disease or population-focused applications are nonresponsive. Demonstrate strong lead-organization research administration, cross-organization governance, community and PBRN engagement, integrated nonduplicative cores, and measurable capacity-building outcomes. Align the application directly to Significance, Investigators, Innovation, Approach, Environment, and core-specific review criteria. CTR-D applicants should provide a realistic phased timeline with AC, PD, CEO, and RDCD functioning before HR Core activities begin; CTR-N applicants should justify existing capacity if not phasing cores. Submit early enough to correct NIH or Grants.gov validation errors before the deadline.