Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Network Recruitment Innovation Centers (RICs)(U24) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Network Recruitment Innovation Centers (RICs) (U24) funding opportunity (RFA-TR-15-004) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement designed to tackle one of the most persistent bottlenecks in clinical research: finding and enrolling the right participants quickly enough for studies to run on time. The program focuses on creating dedicated Recruitment Innovation Centers within the national CTSA consortium to develop, test, and share more effective recruitment approaches. In practical terms, the goal is to improve how researchers determine whether enough eligible participants exist for a given study, and then to speed up the process of contacting, engaging, and enrolling those participants so trials can meet accrual targets without delays that drive up costs or compromise scientific value.

This opportunity uses the U24 cooperative agreement mechanism, which signals that awardees would not operate in isolation. Instead, the NIH (through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NCATS) would have substantial programmatic involvement, meaning the funded centers would be expected to coordinate closely with NIH and the broader CTSA Network. The activity sits at the intersection of health and education categories because it is meant to produce not only operational recruitment improvements but also transferable methods, tools, and best practices that other institutions can adopt. Although the notice lists CFDA numbers 93.350 (NCATS) and 93.879 (Medical Library Assistance), the central organizing purpose is recruitment innovation for clinical trials across the translational pipeline.

The program is essentially about building infrastructure and expertise that can modernize recruitment. That can include innovative ways to assess participant availability in advance (for example, using data-driven feasibility assessments, health system data, registries, or other analytics to estimate eligible populations) as well as interventions that improve enrollment timeliness once a trial launches (such as streamlined workflows, more effective outreach, and strategies to reduce barriers to participation). The underlying idea is that recruitment problems are not just a study-by-study issue; they are systemic, and a network of specialized centers can develop scalable solutions, evaluate what works, and disseminate methods across the CTSA Consortium so the entire national clinical research enterprise benefits.

From an applicant and administrative standpoint, the opportunity was posted May 15, 2015, with an application deadline of July 22, 2015, and an archive date of August 22, 2015. The award ceiling listed is $2,000,000, and there is no cost sharing or matching requirement, which generally reduces barriers for applicants and makes budgeting more straightforward. Because it is a discretionary grant and a cooperative agreement, prospective applicants would be expected to propose a clear plan for how their Recruitment Innovation Center would operate, how it would coordinate with network partners, and how it would produce tangible, measurable improvements in recruitment effectiveness and timeliness.

Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, as well as public and private institutions of higher education. Nonprofits are eligible both with and without 501(c)(3) status (with the latter category explicitly allowed as long as they are not institutions of higher education), and for-profit organizations are eligible (other than small businesses, which are also separately listed as eligible). Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities are included as well. Tribal governments and tribal organizations are eligible, including federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations, along with tribally controlled colleges and universities. The eligibility language also explicitly calls out multiple institution types that often appear in NIH inclusion efforts, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), and faith-based or community-based organizations, along with regional organizations and eligible federal agencies. U.S. territories or possessions may apply. Foreign institutions are not eligible, and foreign components are not allowed, including non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations, consistent with NIH policy.

Overall, this FOA is best read as an NIH/NCATS effort to professionalize and modernize recruitment across the CTSA Network by funding a small number of centers that can serve as innovation hubs. The expectation is that these centers would develop and validate new recruitment methods, improve feasibility assessment so studies are designed with realistic accrual expectations, and provide approaches that can be adopted broadly to reduce delays in clinical trials. For anyone reviewing the original announcement, the full text was available through the NIH Grants Guide link provided in the notice (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-TR-15-004.html), and technical access issues were routed to the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) webmaster contacts listed.

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