Continuation of ChiLDReN, the Childhood Liver Disease Research Network (U01) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity, RFA-DK-13-011, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding announcement aimed at continuing and strengthening the Childhood Liver Disease Research Network (ChiLDReN) through cooperative agreement awards (U01). The core purpose is to maintain an organized, multi-site research network made up of a central Data Coordination Center (DCC) and multiple Clinical Centers. Together, these components are intended to support coordinated clinical and translational research efforts focused on rare pediatric liver diseases, with an emphasis on generating high-quality, comparable data across sites and accelerating discoveries that can improve diagnosis, management, and outcomes for affected children.

The scientific scope of ChiLDReN under this FOA is centered on rare and often life-altering liver conditions in infants, children, and adolescents. The diseases explicitly highlighted include biliary atresia, Alagille syndrome, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) syndromes, bile acid synthesis defects, mitochondrial hepatopathies, idiopathic neonatal hepatitis, and cystic fibrosis-associated liver disease. The network structure is designed to enable studies that are difficult to conduct at a single institution because patient populations are small, geographically dispersed, and clinically heterogeneous. By pooling patients and standardizing data and biospecimen approaches across centers, the program supports more robust natural history studies, improved phenotyping, and the development of evidence needed to guide clinical care and future therapeutic trials.

From an administrative and operational standpoint, the announcement supports two main functional pillars. The Data Coordination Center is positioned as the hub for network-wide data management and coordination, typically encompassing responsibilities such as protocol support, database development and maintenance, data quality control, statistical support, and facilitation of consistent reporting across studies and sites. The Clinical Centers serve as the places where patient recruitment, clinical data collection, follow-up, and study-specific procedures occur, helping the network enroll enough participants to make meaningful conclusions despite the rarity of these disorders. Because the funding mechanism is a cooperative agreement (U01), NIH is expected to have substantial programmatic involvement, meaning awardees generally work collaboratively with NIH staff on planning, oversight, and network governance rather than operating in a completely independent investigator-initiated mode.

The opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding, with the funding activity aligned to health research within the NIH portfolio, specifically under CFDA 93.847 (Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research). The estimated total funding amount listed is $6,500,000. No cost sharing or matching is required, which can reduce barriers to participation for institutions that might otherwise struggle to contribute non-federal funds to cover part of the project costs.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations that can support clinical research infrastructure and multi-site collaboration. Eligible applicants include state and local governments (including cities, counties, townships, special districts), public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status, with some distinctions noted), public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, and for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), as well as small businesses. The FOA also explicitly extends eligibility to a wide range of institution types and community-focused entities, including faith-based and community-based organizations, Hispanic-serving institutions, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian serving institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander serving institutions (AANAPISIs). Importantly, non-U.S. entities are eligible, including foreign organizations and foreign institutions, and the FOA allows foreign components as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, reflecting a willingness to include international expertise and patient populations when appropriate.

Key dates show the posting and creation date as July 18, 2013, with an original and current closing date of November 20, 2013, and an archive date of December 21, 2013. These dates indicate the opportunity is historical and archived, but the description still provides a clear snapshot of NIH priorities for pediatric hepatology network research during that period, particularly the emphasis on coordinated infrastructure (DCC plus Clinical Centers) to address rare disease research challenges.

For applicants or stakeholders seeking more details, the full announcement was hosted through the NIH grants guide, and the listing provides troubleshooting contacts via the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) webmaster for access or linking issues. Overall, the FOA is best understood as an infrastructure-and-research continuation award intended to sustain a mature collaborative network that can carry out complex, multi-center studies in rare pediatric liver diseases, leveraging centralized coordination and standardized methods to produce clinically actionable evidence and a stronger translational pipeline.

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