Limited Competition: NIGMS Legacy Community-Wide Scientific Resources (R24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 19 208

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 19 208

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), offered this limited-competition R24 grant opportunity to keep certain high-value, community-wide scientific resources running after their original NIGMS funding mechanism could no longer support them. The core idea is continuity: these are "legacy" resources that came out of NIGMS-supported research activities, are strongly aligned with the NIGMS mission, and are widely used (or clearly needed) by the NIGMS research community. The program is meant to prevent the loss of essential infrastructure that researchers rely on, especially when there is no obvious alternative NIH institute/center program that can pick up support and when the resource is not yet able to sustain itself through fees, subscriptions, institutional support, or commercialization.

A key feature of this announcement is how NIGMS defines a "resource." It is explicitly non-hypothesis-driven and made available to any qualified investigator. The resource provides broadly useful outputs such as datasets, materials, tools, or services that help researchers make progress faster, with higher quality, and at lower cost than they could without the resource. In practice, this type of resource could include shared data repositories, widely used research tools or platforms, curated community databases, distribution services for materials, or other infrastructure that many labs depend on. What this program does not support is the creation of brand-new resources; it is designed only for continuation of existing, NIGMS-sponsored legacy resources that have reached a funding transition point.

The allowable scope is maintenance-only. Applicants are expected to request support for activities that keep the resource operational and reliable, such as curation, updating, user support, quality assurance, documentation, basic engineering or upkeep, and other operational functions required for continuity. The opportunity is not intended to fund new research aims or hypothesis-driven studies, and it is also labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applicants should not propose clinical trials under this mechanism. The emphasis is on sustaining community access and functionality rather than expanding into new lines of scientific investigation.

Another central expectation is that applicants use this support period to implement a realistic transition plan toward a more permanent support model. NIGMS allows up to three years of funding under this initiative, and that time is framed as a bridge while the resource moves toward longer-term stability. Examples of longer-term stability could include institutional commitment, consortium or society support, cost-recovery models, integration into other sustained infrastructure programs, or other durable funding strategies. The underlying message is that this award is time-limited and intended to facilitate a responsible handoff to a sustainable endpoint rather than indefinite dependence on this bridge mechanism.

Eligibility is broad across many U.S.-based organization types, including state, county, city/township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) as well as small businesses; and other eligible entities. The announcement also highlights additional categories often emphasized for inclusive participation, 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/community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it restricts non-U.S. applicants: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply, although "foreign components" (as NIH defines them in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are allowed, which can matter for resources that have legitimate international collaborations or dependencies while still being led by an eligible U.S. applicant organization.

Administratively, this is an NIH discretionary grant opportunity in the health category with CFDA number 93.859, and it is identified as PAR-19-208. The opportunity was created on March 4, 2019, and listed an original closing date of June 14, 2019. An award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided source details, which is common for some NIH program announcements where the final number and size of awards depend on application quality, program priorities, and available funds.

In summary, this R24 limited-competition program was a targeted bridge to preserve vital NIGMS-associated community resources that would otherwise be at risk when their original funding mechanism ended. It focuses on keeping proven, widely valuable scientific resources available and functional for the broader research community, funding only maintenance and operations (not new research), and requiring a credible plan to transition the resource toward a stable, long-term support model within a three-year window.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: NIGMS Legacy Community-Wide Scientific Resources (R24 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): 93.859.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-03-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-06-14. (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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