Cutting Edge Informatics Tools for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA RM 18 011

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 18 011

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced this funding opportunity, titled "Cutting Edge Informatics Tools for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (RFA-RM-18-011), to strengthen the informatics side of the Common Fund program known as Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG). IDG is focused on helping the biomedical community better understand the roles and biological functions of proteins that are considered "druggable" but remain relatively understudied. The broader idea is that many potential therapeutic targets exist in the genome, but a large fraction of them have limited experimental characterization, limited disease linkage evidence, or lack the kinds of integrated data resources that make them easy for scientists to prioritize. This FOA aims to accelerate progress by adding advanced computational tools that make IDG data easier to integrate, interpret, and use for real decision-making in research.

Within IDG, the work is organized across a consortium that includes Data and Resource Generation Centers (DRGCs) that produce datasets and experimental resources, a Knowledge Management Center (KMC) that integrates and organizes information, and a Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center (RDOC) that helps distribute resources and engage users. This specific opportunity is centered on building a set of Cutting Edge Informatics Tools (CEITs) that augment the capabilities of the KMC and, by extension, the entire consortium and its user community. A central platform referenced in the FOA is Pharos, which serves as an IDG knowledge portal. The FOA emphasizes tool development that improves what Pharos and related IDG infrastructure can do, especially in terms of integrating new information and producing stronger, more actionable predictions about how understudied proteins relate to physiology and disease.

The FOA describes two main ways the proposed informatics tools are expected to add value. First, the tools should enhance the community's ability to process, analyze, and visualize relevant data, and also help prioritize new data resources and analytic methods for incorporation into Pharos. The emphasis is not just on storing or displaying data, but on improving how scientists can work with diverse biomedical datasets to generate hypotheses and sharpen predictions about disease associations and biological function. This implies practical deliverables like pipelines, analytic frameworks, visual interfaces, and integration methods that can handle complex, heterogeneous data and present it in a way that supports target prioritization and interpretation for understudied proteins.

Second, the FOA calls for informatics approaches that help prioritize cellular and animal models that are physiologically and disease relevant for follow-up studies of understudied proteins. In other words, beyond identifying which proteins are interesting, the program wants better computational support for deciding which experimental model systems are most appropriate to study them. This is meant to guide both IDG-funded researchers and the larger scientific community toward models that are more likely to produce meaningful mechanistic insights and translational relevance, rather than relying on convenience or tradition in model selection. The scope of "understudied proteins" called out in the announcement includes non-olfactory G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), protein kinases, and ion channels, which are major target classes in drug discovery but include many members that are still poorly characterized.

The funding mechanism is a U01 cooperative agreement, which generally indicates substantial involvement or partnership from NIH program staff compared with a typical investigator-initiated grant. The opportunity is explicitly labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," signaling that supported activities must remain outside the conduct of clinical trials and should focus on informatics tool development, data integration, and research-enabling methods rather than testing interventions in human participants. The activity category is Health, and the CFDA number listed is 93.310. The original closing date for applications was July 9, 2018, and the announcement was created on April 3, 2018. The listed award ceiling is $300,000. The record also indicates expected awards but does not provide a specific number in the excerpt provided.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic applicants such as state and local governments, public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status), for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), and small businesses. It also includes Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and other tribal organizations, independent school districts, and public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. In addition, the FOA explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant types, including 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, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). This broad eligibility reflects an intent to attract a wide range of computational, biomedical informatics, and data science expertise that can contribute to open, reusable tools supporting the IDG mission.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as an informatics acceleration effort within IDG: it is meant to create practical, cutting-edge computational tools that strengthen the IDG knowledge ecosystem, improve how scientists analyze and visualize relevant data, enable better predictions linking understudied proteins to disease and physiology, and guide the selection of high-value experimental models for further investigation. The intended outcome is a stronger, more usable knowledge infrastructure that helps turn "understudied" targets into tractable, evidence-backed candidates for deeper biology and ultimately therapeutic exploration.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cutting Edge Informatics Tools for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U01 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): 93.310.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-04-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-07-09. (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 $300,000.00 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 RM 18 011

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