Core Infrastructure and Methodological Research for Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts (U01) | PAR 17 233

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 17 233

The funding opportunity titled "Core Infrastructure and Methodological Research for Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts (U01)" (PAR-17-233) is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) program run under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that uses the cooperative agreement mechanism (U01). The main goal is to support the ongoing, essential operations of established Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts (CECs) while also encouraging methodological research that improves how large cohort-based cancer epidemiology is conducted. In practical terms, this FOA is focused on keeping the backbone of existing cohorts strong and functional, rather than primarily creating brand-new cohorts, and on making sure these cohort resources can be used more broadly by the scientific community.

A central theme of the announcement is sustaining and strengthening core infrastructure. That typically means funding the foundational systems and activities that make a cohort valuable over time: maintaining participant follow-up processes, managing and curating data and biospecimens, ensuring consistent data quality and documentation, supporting secure and well-governed data storage and access, and enabling efficient sharing of cohort resources. The FOA explicitly emphasizes resource sharing with broader scientific communities, which signals an expectation that supported cohorts will not function as closed or siloed projects. Instead, they are expected to be organized in ways that allow external researchers, collaborations, and wider networks to responsibly access data or specimens, consistent with participant consent, privacy protections, and governance policies.

Alongside infrastructure support, the FOA also encourages methodological research. This component is aimed at improving the tools, approaches, and analytic methods used in cancer epidemiology cohorts, which can include better exposure assessment, improved outcome ascertainment, innovations in data linkage, new approaches to handling bias and confounding, methods for integrating multi-omic or longitudinal data, and strategies that enhance reproducibility and generalizability. The key idea is that the award is not only paying for routine maintenance; it is also intended to advance the science of how cohorts are built, managed, and analyzed so that cohort findings are more reliable, more informative, and more useful for cancer research and public health.

The opportunity is categorized under discretionary funding and falls within the education and health activity area, with CFDA number 93.393. The agency is NIH (specifically NCI), and the cooperative agreement structure means NIH staff typically have a more involved role than they would under a standard research project grant. While the details of that involvement are not spelled out in the text provided, U01 awards generally include substantial scientific or programmatic involvement from the funding institute, often around coordination, milestones, data-sharing expectations, and alignment with broader program goals.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based entities and organizations that commonly participate in NIH funding. Eligible applicants include state, county, city, township, and special district governments; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other organizations as permitted under the FOA. The announcement also highlights a range of additional eligible applicant categories 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), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations and U.S. territories or possessions. This emphasis signals an openness to applications from diverse institutional settings, including those that serve underrepresented populations and communities that are often central to epidemiologic research.

At the same time, there are clear restrictions related to foreign participation. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible to apply. However, the FOA states that foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. This distinction generally means a U.S.-based applicant can include certain allowable international collaborations or activities as part of the project, but the applicant organization itself must be domestic, and the project cannot be structured around an ineligible foreign entity or a non-domestic component of a U.S. organization.

In terms of basic award parameters shown in the source data, the listed award ceiling is $1,250,000. The FOA was created on March 29, 2017, and an original closing date is listed as March 12, 2020. The expected number of awards is not specified in the provided text. Overall, the opportunity is best understood as NCI support for the long-term viability and usefulness of major cancer epidemiology cohort resources, coupled with methodological innovation, with a strong emphasis on maintaining high-quality infrastructure and making cohort resources accessible in ways that benefit the broader cancer research community.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Core Infrastructure and Methodological Research for Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts (U01)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.393.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-03-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-03-12. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,250,000.00 in funding.
• 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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