Identification and Characterization of Bioactive Microbial Metabolites for Advancing Research on Microbe-Diet-Host Interactions Knowledgebase Management Center (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 21 014

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 21 014

The NIH funding opportunity RFA-DK-21-014 supports the creation of a Knowledge Management Center (KMC) through a U24 cooperative agreement to help organize, standardize, and share research outputs focused on bioactive microbial metabolites that influence microbe-diet-host interactions. The core idea is that many NIH-funded projects can generate valuable but scattered findings about microbial metabolites (their identities, structures, biosynthetic origins, and biological effects), and this KMC will serve as the central hub that turns those individual results into a coherent, accessible knowledgebase for the broader research community. The award is categorized under Food and Nutrition/Health (CFDA 93.847) and is administered by the National Institutes of Health, with an original application due date of October 20, 2021. As a U24, this mechanism emphasizes shared research infrastructure and community resources rather than running a standalone discovery project, and it operates as a cooperative agreement, meaning NIH program staff are expected to have substantial involvement in coordinating goals, milestones, and collaboration.

A key feature of this FOA is that it is designed to work hand-in-hand with a companion research announcement, PAR-21-253 (R01), which funds the actual identification and characterization of microbial metabolites. Those R01 projects generate the primary data and experimental findings, and the KMC funded by this U24 is responsible for curating and integrating those outputs into a structured knowledgebase. In practical terms, the KMC is expected to support the community by managing data intake from multiple grantees, applying consistent metadata and quality standards, enabling cross-study comparisons, and ensuring that the resulting metabolite-focused knowledgebase is usable by researchers studying how diet, microbiomes, and host biology interact. The FOA explicitly states the purpose is to create a microbial metabolite knowledgebase that is accessible to the research community, which implies an emphasis on findability, interoperability, and long-term utility rather than a one-off dataset.

This opportunity is labeled “Clinical Trial Not Allowed,” which signals that the KMC itself should not propose or conduct clinical trials as part of the award. The intended work centers on knowledge management activities: coordinating with contributing investigators, developing and maintaining databases or portals, supporting data harmonization and standard operating procedures for submission, and building tools or workflows that make metabolite information easier to query and reuse. Because this is a cooperative agreement, applicants should also expect ongoing coordination with NIH and the network of funded investigators, including participation in collaborative governance, shared decision-making on standards, and responsiveness to evolving community needs as new metabolite discovery and characterization data come in.

Eligibility is broad and includes many U.S.-based organization types: state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public housing/Indian housing authorities; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; other Native American tribal organizations; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), excluding institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories as specified); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The FOA also highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, AANAPISIs, Hispanic-serving Institutions, HBCUs, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it draws clear lines around foreign participation: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply as applicants, but “foreign components” as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement are allowed, meaning certain international collaborations or project elements may be permissible if they meet NIH definitions and requirements.

Overall, this FOA is essentially an infrastructure-and-coordination award aimed at accelerating the field by making microbial metabolite knowledge more organized, comparable, and reusable. It aims to reduce fragmentation across separately funded metabolite projects by providing a central place where data and annotations can be deposited, curated, updated, and disseminated in a way that helps researchers connect metabolites to microbial sources, dietary inputs, host pathways, and biological outcomes. The emphasis on a companion R01 program underscores that the KMC is meant to be the backbone for a broader initiative: R01 teams discover and characterize metabolites, and the U24 team ensures those discoveries become a durable, community-accessible resource that advances research on microbe-diet-host interactions.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Identification and Characterization of Bioactive Microbial Metabolites for Advancing Research on Microbe-Diet-Host Interactions Knowledgebase Management Center (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 2021-07-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-10-20. (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 21 014

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