Emergency Awards: HEAL Initiative: Coordinating Center for National Pain Scientists Career Development (R24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA NS 22 060

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA NS 22 060

The NIH is soliciting applications for an R24 coordination grant under the HEAL Initiative to create a Coordinating Center for National Pain Scientists (CCNPS). The opportunity is framed as an emergency response to a widely recognized bottleneck in the pain research workforce: there are not enough investigators entering and staying in pain research to meet long-term national needs, especially the push for effective, non-opioid pain treatments and improved pain management strategies. The Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) has called out several drivers of this problem, including barriers to entry that limit growth in the field, a high departure rate among senior investigators and mentors, and too few structured, reliable pathways for early-stage researchers to receive high-quality mentoring and professional development. NIH is positioning this coordinating center as a practical way to stabilize and grow the pipeline by improving training, mentoring, and cross-disciplinary connection for pain scientists already supported through NIH mechanisms.

At the core, the CCNPS is meant to function as a national hub that integrates training and mentorship across a distributed network of NIH-funded early-stage pain researchers and established mentors. The target audience includes NIH trainees, fellows, and career development awardees working anywhere along the pain research continuum, from basic and mechanistic work through translational science and clinical research (while remaining non-clinical-trial in this particular funding announcement). A major motivation is that pain research often stays siloed: basic, translational, and clinical researchers do not consistently collaborate when shaping research questions or developing grant applications. NIH expects that a central coordinating center that actively connects these groups will lead to more innovative and practically useful projects, strengthen grant competitiveness, and speed the field toward better real-world pain management solutions.

Functionally, an applicant organization would be proposing to build and operate the coordination infrastructure that makes this network work. That typically implies organizing structured mentoring opportunities, creating consistent professional development programming, and enabling regular interactions that promote multidisciplinary collaborations among pain researchers. The emphasis is not on running independent hypothesis-driven research studies, but on serving as the facilitator and integrator that improves the overall training environment and career development experience for new investigators in pain research nationwide. The long-term goal is to create a durable, well-connected community of NIH-supported pain researchers who can more easily find mentors, form cross-cutting teams, and develop stronger, more collaborative research proposals that align with the HEAL Initiative mission.

This is a discretionary grant opportunity from the National Institutes of Health, listed as "Emergency Awards: HEAL Initiative: Coordinating Center for National Pain Scientists Career Development (R24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" with funding opportunity number RFA-NS-22-060. The activity sits in the health domain and references multiple CFDA/assistance listings (93.121, 93.213, 93.313, 93.853), reflecting NIH’s multi-institute structure and the cross-cutting nature of pain research and HEAL-related activities. The original closing date for applications was July 15, 2022, and the posting date in the provided record is May 5, 2022. The notice does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the supplied text, so applicants would normally need to consult the full FOA for budget limits, project period, and programmatic expectations.

Eligibility is broad and includes many common NIH applicant types: state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding those that are institutions of higher education in the specific categories listed); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The FOA also explicitly highlights 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, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. Foreign institutions (non-U.S. entities) are not eligible to apply, and foreign components are not allowed under NIH policy definitions for this announcement; however, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are allowed, meaning a U.S.-based applicant could potentially include certain overseas elements so long as they are not considered a foreign component under NIH rules.

In practical terms, the grant is designed for an organization capable of acting as a national convener and program operator: building the administrative backbone, setting up structured mentoring and career development activities, and creating repeatable processes that connect early-stage pain researchers with seasoned mentors across disciplines. NIH’s larger objective is to strengthen the pain research workforce and make collaboration the default rather than the exception, ultimately accelerating the development and adoption of better pain management approaches that reduce reliance on opioids and improve patient outcomes.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Emergency Awards: HEAL Initiative: Coordinating Center for National Pain Scientists Career Development (R24 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): 93.121, 93.213, 93.313, 93.853.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-05-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-07-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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 RFA NS 22 060

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