Accelerating Behavioral and Social Science through Ontology Development and Use: Dissemination and Coordination Center (U24) Clinical Trial Not Allowed | PAR 23 181

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 23 181

This NIH funding opportunity (PAR-23-181) supports the creation of a Dissemination and Coordination Center (DCC) under a U24 cooperative agreement to accelerate behavioral and social science research through stronger ontology development and broader ontology use. The DCC is intended to serve as the hub for the related Behavioral and Social Science Ontology Development U01 Research Network projects (linked to PAR-23-182), helping those projects operate as a coordinated network rather than as isolated efforts. The NOFO is explicitly designated "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning the proposed work should focus on infrastructure, coordination, methods, dissemination, and related support activities rather than running clinical trials.

Applications are expected from multi-disciplinary teams with complementary expertise spanning three required areas: (1) one or more behavioral and/or social science disciplines (to ensure the work reflects real scientific needs and common constructs in those fields), (2) ontology-focused informatics and computational approaches (to provide the technical foundation for ontology development, alignment, curation, and tooling), and (3) Team Science or the Science of Science (to bring evidence-based approaches to collaboration, network functioning, and evaluating how the consortium works and improves over time). In practice, NIH is looking for a group that can translate between domain scientists and technical ontology developers while also deliberately designing and studying the processes that make multi-site, multi-discipline collaboration productive.

The DCC has four main responsibilities. First, it must coordinate and provide logistical support to facilitate collaboration and cross-project learning across the U01 network. This typically includes planning and running regular network meetings, creating shared workflows, supporting shared documentation, harmonizing timelines and milestones where appropriate, and building mechanisms for rapid sharing of lessons learned so advances in one project can be reused by others. Second, the DCC must provide ontology-related technical, computational, and informatics expertise and support. That can include guidance on ontology engineering best practices, tooling recommendations, quality assurance processes, interoperability and alignment across ontologies, and support for making outputs usable in computational environments (for example, consistent identifiers, versioning, and machine-readable formats). Third, the DCC must lead dissemination of resources and training that enable ontology expansion, development, and use. This is about making the network's products understandable and adoptable by the broader community through training materials, documentation, workshops, tutorials, examples, and other capacity-building activities. Fourth, the DCC must conduct active outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders to increase understanding of and demand for behavioral and social science research (BSSR) ontology tools and resources. Stakeholders can include researchers, tool and platform developers, funders, standards communities, journals, professional societies, and other groups positioned to drive uptake and ensure the ontologies become part of routine research practice.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, which generally signals substantial NIH involvement during the project. The activity category is health, and the CFDA numbers listed are 93.310 and 93.866. The opportunity was created on 2023-05-24, with an original closing date of 2023-10-03. The listed award ceiling is $500,000 (typically interpreted as an annual direct cost cap unless otherwise specified in the full announcement). The expected number of awards is not provided in the source text.

Eligibility is broad and includes many government, academic, nonprofit, and private-sector organization types. Eligible applicants include state, county, city/township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and additional "other" entities. The NOFO also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs); eligible federal agencies; faith-based or community-based organizations; Hispanic-serving institutions; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (other than federally recognized); non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations); regional organizations; Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs); and U.S. territories or possessions. Overall, NIH is signaling that it wants wide participation and encourages applications from organizations positioned to connect technical ontology work with real-world behavioral and social science communities and stakeholders.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Accelerating Behavioral and Social Science through Ontology Development and Use: Dissemination and Coordination 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): 93.310, 93.866.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-05-24.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-10-03. (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 $500,000.00 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.

Apply for PAR 23 181

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