Continuation of Existing Grant Based Epidemiology Cohort Studies in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Diseases and Disorders (U01) | PAR 17 338

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 17 338

The grant opportunity "Continuation of Existing Grant Based Epidemiology Cohort Studies in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Diseases and Disorders (U01)" (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-17-338) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) program run through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). It uses a cooperative agreement mechanism (U01), which generally means the awardee carries out the work while NHLBI remains actively involved in oversight and coordination. The overall intent is not to start brand-new cohort studies, but to keep high-value, already-established population cohorts going so they continue generating reliable long-term data on heart, lung, blood, and sleep diseases and related disorders.

A central requirement is that the cohort being supported is an existing epidemiology cohort that is prospectively following at least 2,000 participants. The FOA is focused on maintenance, follow-up, and continued outcome tracking rather than launching expansive new discovery initiatives under the parent award. In practical terms, NHLBI is looking to preserve the core operations that make long-running cohorts useful: keeping contact with participants, collecting the next round of key measurements, and ensuring that major health outcomes are captured accurately and consistently over time.

The activities supported emphasize what the announcement describes as a "minimal content" exam or data collection cycle. That framing signals a streamlined, foundational follow-up visit or assessment designed to maintain continuity and comparability of measures, rather than an overly broad or expensive set of procedures. Alongside that minimal exam cycle, a major supported function is the ongoing ascertainment and adjudication of clinically significant events. Ascertainment refers to identifying potential outcomes (for example, hospitalizations, diagnoses, or deaths) through participant contact, medical records, registries, or other sources, while adjudication refers to a structured review process to confirm events using standardized definitions. This kind of event confirmation is one of the most valuable and resource-intensive aspects of cohort science, because it determines whether downstream analyses are credible and comparable across time.

The broader goal of the FOA is to protect and maximize the federal investment already made in these cohorts. NHLBI is essentially paying to keep the infrastructure intact: the staffing, systems, protocols, and governance needed to maintain data quality, retain participants, manage biospecimens or records where applicable, and keep the cohort positioned for future scientific use. A recurring theme is resource sharing. The announcement highlights supporting infrastructure that enables the cohort to serve as a community resource, meaning data and materials can be shared with the wider scientific community in ways consistent with participant consent, privacy protections, and NIH policies.

Another key point is that the FOA is meant to set the stage for future innovative research, but that innovation is expected to occur largely through ancillary studies rather than through the main cohort-maintenance award itself. In other words, the U01 supports the foundational cohort operations and core data/outcome collection, while new hypotheses, specialized measurements, or add-on projects can be pursued later through separately funded ancillary research. This structure allows NHLBI to keep cohorts stable and comparable over time while still enabling cutting-edge questions to be tested efficiently using the existing participant base and infrastructure.

Eligibility is broad and includes many common applicant types: state, county, and city governments; special districts; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; and Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) as well as tribal organizations that are not federally recognized. The FOA also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant 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), along with faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. On the international side, non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply as primary applicants. However, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are eligible, and foreign components (as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are allowed, meaning parts of the work may be conducted outside the U.S. under a U.S. applicant when justified and compliant with NIH rules.

Administrative details included in the source information describe the opportunity category as discretionary and the activity category as health, with CFDA numbers listed as 93.233 and 93.837 through 93.840 (reflecting relevant NIH/NHLBI assistance programs). The award ceiling is stated as $1,950,000. The announcement record lists an original closing date of January 9, 2020, with a creation date of August 21, 2017. Taken together, the FOA is best understood as a cohort-preservation and infrastructure-support mechanism: it funds the essential exam cycle and rigorous outcome adjudication needed to keep large, prospective cohort studies scientifically productive, sharable, and ready to support future ancillary investigations in heart, lung, blood, and sleep-related health.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Continuation of Existing Grant Based Epidemiology Cohort Studies in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Diseases and Disorders (U01)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.233, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-08-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-01-09. (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 $1,950,000.00 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 PAR 17 338

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: