Diabetes Research Centers (P30) | RFA DK 18 020

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 18 020

The Diabetes Research Centers (P30) funding opportunity (RFA-DK-18-020) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant program run through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Its purpose is to strengthen the overall U.S. research effort focused on diabetes, diabetes complications, and closely related endocrine and metabolic diseases. Rather than funding a single research project, this is a center-based mechanism intended to build shared infrastructure and coordinated programs that make a strong diabetes research community more efficient, more productive, and more collaborative across disciplines.

A Diabetes Research Center funded under this FOA is expected to concentrate on two main activity areas. The first is Research Core services, which are shared resources that multiple investigators can use to accelerate and improve their diabetes-related studies. These cores are meant to reduce duplication, raise quality and consistency, and give investigators access to specialized expertise, methods, technologies, and services that would be difficult for individual labs to sustain on their own. The second required activity is a Pilot and Feasibility (P and F) program, which provides smaller, targeted support to stimulate new ideas and help investigators generate early data. In practice, P and F funding is often used to launch innovative projects, encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations, bring new investigators into diabetes research, or allow established researchers to pivot into promising new directions relevant to diabetes and metabolic disease.

All center activities supported through the P30 are framed around improving the effectiveness and multidisciplinary nature of diabetes research. The FOA emphasizes that these centers should enhance the broader institutional and national research ecosystem by creating an environment where investigators can share tools, data, and expertise, and where new lines of inquiry can be tested quickly through pilot support. NIDDK notes that, as of 2018, the Diabetes Research Centers program included 16 centers located at research institutions with strong, documented excellence in diabetes-related research, and it points applicants to general program information at www.diabetescenters.org. This context signals that the program is geared toward institutions that can demonstrate a substantial base of ongoing diabetes research and the ability to operate cores and pilot programs that serve a broader community of researchers.

Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based organizations and includes many types of government entities and research-performing organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized. The FOA also allows nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)), public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), and small businesses. It explicitly highlights additional eligible categories such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations and eligible federal agencies. U.S. territories or possessions may also apply.

At the same time, the FOA draws clear boundaries around foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed. In other words, this center support is intended to be carried out entirely within eligible U.S. organizational structures without foreign components.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is categorized as a discretionary grant with an activity category focused on food and nutrition and health, and it is associated with CFDA number 93.847. The original closing date listed is June 20, 2019, and the opportunity record shows a creation date of October 12, 2018. The excerpt provided does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards, indicating those details would need to be confirmed in the full FOA or accompanying NIH budget guidance.

Overall, this FOA is about building and sustaining a coordinated diabetes research hub at an institution, with shared scientific cores and a structured pilot program as the central deliverables. The underlying goal is to make diabetes research faster, more rigorous, and more collaborative by investing in the common infrastructure and early-stage idea generation that can lift the productivity of many investigators at once, rather than funding isolated projects one at a time.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Diabetes Research Centers (P30)" 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 2018-10-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-06-20. (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.

Apply for RFA DK 18 020

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