NIDCD Community Wide Scientific Resources Limited Competition (R24) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The NIDCD Community Wide Scientific Resources Limited Competition (R24) grant opportunity (PAR-11-103) is a National Institutes of Health discretionary grant designed to keep certain valuable, community-facing research resources alive after their original funding mechanism ended. It is explicitly limited to resources that were previously or are currently funded under a specific earlier initiative, RFA DC-07-002 (the NIDCD R21/R33 Phased Infrastructure Grant for Patient-Oriented Research). The main idea is continuity: NIDCD is offering a path for these particular infrastructure-style resources to remain available to the broader research community even though the original initiative expired and cannot be renewed through its original channel.

A key feature of this program is that it is not for new projects or newly proposed resources. Applicants cannot use this FOA to start a brand-new resource, nor can they use it to continue resources that were funded under different announcements. Instead, the FOA targets a narrow set of already-established resources that NIDCD considers important to its mission areas, such as research related to deafness and other communication disorders (CFDA 93.173). In practical terms, the intended applicants are groups that already built a shared capability under the earlier R21/R33 phased infrastructure mechanism and now need continued support so the resource does not disappear before it becomes self-sustaining.

The FOA emphasizes what NIH means by a "resource" in this context. It is not a hypothesis-driven research project. Rather, it is a non-hypothesis-driven activity that provides data, materials, tools, or services that enable faster, higher-quality, and more cost-efficient progress across a field. That framing matters because it positions the award as community infrastructure: something that many investigators can use for clearly defined purposes that are widely understood. In other words, the resource should function as a shared platform or service for a community of researchers funded or supported by NIDCD, not as a local capability used primarily by a single lab for its own research aims.

NIDCD indicates it may provide full or partial support for these existing resources, but it is looking for resources that are both central to the institute's mission and not yet self-sustaining or ready for commercialization. This suggests applicants need to make a strong case that the resource has high community value, fills an ongoing need, and still requires federal support to operate at the scale and quality the community depends on. The FOA also signals an expectation that the resource serves a broader network of investigators, not just the host institution, and that access and intended uses are clearly articulated rather than ad hoc.

At the same time, the announcement draws a boundary around what it will not fund. It is not intended to support high-cost multi-user instrumentation purchases (the example threshold given is around $100,000, with examples like gene sequencers and electron microscopes). NIH notes that these kinds of major shared instruments are typically supported through other NIH infrastructure programs (historically linked in the text to NCRR), so this R24 is focused more on sustaining community resources and services rather than buying expensive capital equipment.

The administrative details reflect a standard NIH grant opportunity: it is categorized as a grant under the health funding activity category, with no cost sharing or matching requirement. The opportunity was posted on January 21, 2011, with an original and final closing date of October 18, 2011, and an archive date of November 18, 2011, meaning it was time-limited and is no longer open. Even so, the structure of the program is clear: it is a limited competition meant to preserve and maintain a defined set of NIDCD-relevant, community-wide scientific resources that were created under a now-expired initiative, ensuring that important shared services, datasets, tools, or materials remain available to the broader research community.

Eligibility is broad and includes many common NIH applicant organization types. Eligible applicants include public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofits (including 501(c)(3) and certain non-501(c)(3) entities), small businesses and other for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), state and local governments (including county, city, township, special district governments), independent school districts, public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, and Native American tribal organizations, including federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal entities. The FOA also explicitly lists additional eligible categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, tribally controlled colleges and universities, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. The practical takeaway is that the limiting factor is not the institution type so much as whether the applicant is tied to an eligible pre-existing resource funded under the specific earlier NIDCD announcement.

Overall, PAR-11-103 is best understood as a bridge and stabilization mechanism: a way for NIDCD to preserve select, proven, community-benefiting research resources that support deafness and communication disorders research, when those resources would otherwise face a funding cliff due to the expiration of the original R21/R33 infrastructure initiative.

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