HEAL Initiative: Limited Competition for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study – Consortium Administrative Core and Data Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DA 27 014

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DA 27 014

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering a limited-competition funding opportunity under the HEAL Initiative to renew two central infrastructure components of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study: the HBCD Consortium Administrative Core (HCAC) and the HBCD Data Coordinating Center (HDCC). The mechanism is a U24 cooperative agreement and it is explicitly designated as "Clinical Trial Not Allowed." Applications will go through standard NIH peer review, and only those judged to be scientifically and operationally strong will be considered for funding. The opportunity is listed as RFA-DA-27-014, was created on June 10, 2026, and has an application due date of July 10, 2026. NIH anticipates making two awards total, reflecting the intent to support one administrative core and one data coordinating center for the consortium.

At its core, this NOFO exists to keep the national HBCD Study running smoothly and consistently across sites by maintaining centralized leadership, coordination, and data infrastructure. HBCD is described as a nationwide, multi-site, longitudinal study following children from birth through childhood to understand brain and behavioral development. A major emphasis is on how prenatal substance exposure may influence health and developmental outcomes. Because the study is large, multi-site, and long-term, it requires shared standards, harmonized procedures, and robust data systems so that findings are comparable and usable across locations and over time. This renewal competition focuses on sustaining and improving the backbone functions that make that kind of integrated research possible.

NIH highlights that the HBCD Consortium is built around three tightly linked components: (1) a network of linked Research Project Sites that enroll and follow participants, (2) a single overall Consortium Administrative Core (HCAC) that provides consortium-wide administration and coordination, and (3) a single, central Data Coordinating Center (HDCC) that manages the consortium's data and related infrastructure. This NOFO runs alongside a companion solicitation for the linked research sites (RFA-DA-27-013), underscoring that NIH is funding the study as an integrated system rather than as isolated projects. In practice, the administrative and data centers supported by this opportunity are expected to work in close alignment with the site awards to ensure the consortium functions as one coordinated national study.

Because this is a cooperative agreement, NIH staff are expected to have substantial involvement, and awardees should anticipate active collaboration with NIH scientific staff in planning and executing project activities. The NOFO states that investigators, once funded, will work jointly with NIH to assist, guide, coordinate, or participate in study activities. This cooperative structure typically signals that NIH will play an ongoing role in governance, milestone tracking, coordination decisions, and ensuring the project meets consortium-wide needs and federal expectations.

Eligibility is highly restricted, which is the defining feature of the "limited competition" label here. Only organizations (or their subcontractors) that were previously funded under the earlier HBCD awards are allowed to apply, and the restriction is specific to each component. For the Consortium Administrative Core (HCAC), only organizations or subcontractors previously funded under RFA-DA-21-022 may apply. For the Data Coordinating Center (HDCC), only organizations or subcontractors previously funded under RFA-DA-21-023 may apply. This structure is meant to ensure continuity and to limit applications to groups with direct experience running these specific HBCD consortium functions, rather than opening the competition to entirely new entities.

Even with the limited-competition constraints tied to prior HBCD awards, NIH indicates that foreign involvement is permitted in several forms. Non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations) are eligible to apply, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are eligible, and foreign components are allowed as defined under the NIH Grants Policy Statement. In other words, the NOFO does not prohibit international applicants or collaborations, as long as they meet the key eligibility requirement of having the required prior HBCD funding relationship (either as the main awardee organization or as a subcontractor on the prior awards).

Administratively, the opportunity falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) assistance listing framework and is categorized as discretionary funding. The activity category is health, and it includes multiple CFDA/Assistance Listing numbers (93.113, 93.121, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.307, 93.313, 93.853, 93.865, 93.867), reflecting the multi-institute, multi-program nature that often accompanies large NIH consortium efforts under the HEAL Initiative. An explicit award ceiling is not stated in the provided summary, but NIH expects two total awards, aligning with the plan to fund one HCAC and one HDCC.

Overall, this NOFO is best understood as a continuation and renewal of the central coordination and data-management engines for a major national child development cohort study under HEAL. Rather than funding new scientific aims at individual sites, it is focused on ensuring the consortium remains operationally integrated, consistently managed, and capable of producing high-quality, harmonized data to answer questions about early brain and behavioral development and the effects of prenatal substance exposure across diverse populations and settings.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "HEAL Initiative: Limited Competition for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study – Consortium Administrative Core and Data Coordinating Center (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): 93.113, 93.121, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.307, 93.313, 93.853, 93.865, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2026-06-10.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-07-10. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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