Kidney Precision Medicine Project Central Hub (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 20 029

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 20 029

The Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP) Central Hub funding opportunity (RFA-DK-20-029) is an NIH cooperative agreement (U24; clinical trial not allowed) aimed at running the operational and scientific backbone for the broader KPMP program. The central purpose is to support the KPMP participant cohort and ensure that clinical information and biospecimens collected across the project are handled in a consistent, high-quality, and secure way. In practice, the Central Hub is expected to serve as the organizing center that receives, curates, and de-identifies clinical data and sample-related information from the network, while also providing the coordination, infrastructure, and oversight needed to keep a complex, multi-site effort working smoothly and producing usable, harmonized outputs.

A major focus of the Central Hub is end-to-end data and sample coordination: collecting both existing and newly generated clinical data and biospecimens tied to KPMP participants, making sure they are properly de-identified, and managing the associated workflows so that the information can be used across collaborating teams. Beyond basic collection, the Hub is responsible for building and maintaining scientific and technical infrastructure that supports the program, including quality control processes that ensure data integrity and comparability across sites. This includes the kinds of standardization, tracking, documentation, and validation steps that are essential when multiple institutions are generating and contributing clinical and tissue-derived data intended to be integrated into a single, program-wide resource.

The Central Hub is designed to work closely with several other KPMP components: Recruitment Sites (RS), Tissue Interrogation Sites (TIS), and the Kidney Tissue Atlas Coordinating Center (KTACC). Together, these groups will obtain and evaluate kidney biopsies from people with acute kidney injury (AKI) or chronic kidney disease (CKD). The broader scientific objective is to create a Kidney Tissue Atlas and use it to define disease subgroups and identify the key cells, interstitial features, molecular pathways, and therapeutic targets that could lead to more precise, mechanism-based treatments. The Central Hub role in this ecosystem is to enable and accelerate that science by keeping operations coordinated, ensuring consistent standards and quality controls, and providing project management and administrative support so that the pipeline from participant recruitment to tissue assessment to atlas construction remains aligned and efficient.

This FOA is explicitly not intended to support clinical trials under this award mechanism. Instead, it emphasizes coordination, infrastructure, rigorous data/sample handling, and collaborative support functions that make the program’s translational and atlas-building goals feasible. As a cooperative agreement, it also implies substantial NIH involvement in the ongoing direction and stewardship of the project, with awardees expected to work in close partnership with NIH and the other funded components of KPMP rather than operating as a fully independent, stand-alone research project.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations and governments, such as state, county, city/township, and special district governments; public and state-controlled and private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; federally recognized Native American 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; small businesses; and other eligible entities. The FOA also highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), 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, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply, though foreign components (as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement) may be allowable within an otherwise eligible application.

Key administrative details from the source information include the sponsoring agency (National Institutes of Health), the assistance listing/CFDA number 93.847, and the original closing date of September 23, 2021. The activity aligns with health-related research support (listed under Food and Nutrition, Health in the source categorization), and the central deliverable implied by the program description is a well-coordinated, quality-controlled, de-identified clinical and biospecimen-linked data resource that can be integrated with tissue interrogation outputs to build the Kidney Tissue Atlas and drive discovery of clinically meaningful kidney disease subtypes and therapeutic targets.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Kidney Precision Medicine Project Central Hub (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): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-04-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-09-23. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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.

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