Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Program: Tissue Procurement Center (R24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Program Tissue Procurement Center, opportunity number RFA-RM-28-014, is a forecasted federal grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the National Institutes of Health. The opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding in the Health category and uses a grant funding instrument. It is associated with Assistance Listing 93.310, Trans-NIH Research Support. The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues, or SMaHT, Network is intended to advance discovery of biological processes and disease mechanisms mediated by somatic mutations in human tissues. Since 2023, the program has generated multi-omic somatic mutation datasets using a standardized set of human tissues spanning all three germ layers. Building on the foundation established during Stage 1 of the SMaHT program, the National Institutes of Health intends to issue a Notice of Funding Opportunity supporting the SMaHT Tissue Procurement Center initiative. The Tissue Procurement Center is intended to enable functional analyses of healthy and clinically relevant tissue samples and provide critical resources for characterizing somatic mosaicism and understanding its role in human biology and disease. The center will support the broader SMaHT Network through the collection, processing, storage, and rapid distribution of high-quality, well-characterized human tissue specimens. The anticipated scope includes expanding upon the 150 healthy donors enrolled during Stage 1. The Tissue Procurement Center will procure tissues from at least 50 additional healthy donors, bringing the program total to 200 healthy donors. The center will also collect up to 10 special tissue cohorts. These cohorts may include tissues that can be grown in culture, tissues of high interest for somatic mosaicism studies, clinically relevant samples, organs requiring special handling procedures, and other relevant samples. The awardee will collaborate with other SMaHT Stage 2 initiatives to help ensure that collected samples are sufficient and useful for production-level assays within the program. The forecast does not state award amounts, total program funding, an expected number of awards, a period of performance, indirect cost restrictions, or other detailed spending limitations. The opportunity identifies a broad range of eligible applicants. These include state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, independent school districts, public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, other Native American tribal organizations, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofits with or without Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) status other than institutions of higher education, small businesses, and other for-profit organizations. Additional eligible applicants include eligible agencies of the federal government, U.S. territories or possessions, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and non-domestic entities or foreign institutions. No cost sharing or matching requirement is identified. Because this record is a forecast rather than the final Notice of Funding Opportunity, detailed application mechanics and required application components are not yet provided. The source does not identify a letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, initial application deadline, required application forms or uploads, application questions, evaluation criteria, or a detailed submission procedure. Applicants should therefore treat the currently published information as advance notice of the planned funding opportunity rather than as the complete application instructions. No recurring schedule or rolling application process is stated. The forecast was published on September 14, 2026 and was last updated on September 14, 2026. The estimated posting date is May 1, 2027, which is treated as the anticipated application opening date based on the information currently available. The estimated application due date is July 1, 2027. The estimated award date is May 1, 2028, and the estimated project start date is also May 1, 2028. The listed fiscal year is 2028. Because these dates appear in a forecasted opportunity, they are estimated rather than final and may be revised when the formal Notice of Funding Opportunity is released. Questions about the forecast may be directed to the SMaHT Program at smaht@od.nih.gov.

Align the proposed Tissue Procurement Center approach with the stated priorities for collecting, processing, storing, and rapidly distributing high-quality, well-characterized human tissue specimens. Address procurement from at least 50 additional healthy donors, the potential collection of up to 10 special tissue cohorts, collaboration with other SMaHT Stage 2 initiatives, and sample suitability for production-level assays. These are program priorities stated in the forecast, not published evaluation criteria.