Investigator Initiated Research in Computational Genomics and Data Science (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 21 255

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 21 255

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is soliciting applications under the funding opportunity announcement titled Investigator Initiated Research in Computational Genomics and Data Science (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed), FOA number PAR-21-255. This is a discretionary grant opportunity in the health area (CFDA 93.172) using the R21 mechanism, which is typically meant to support exploratory, early-stage projects that can open up new lines of research or demonstrate feasibility of innovative ideas. As the title indicates, clinical trials are not allowed under this FOA, so proposed work should focus on computational and methodological advances rather than interventional clinical studies.

The main goal of the program is to support a broad range of investigator-initiated research in computational genomics, data science, statistics, and bioinformatics that is relevant to basic and/or clinical genomic science and that can be applied broadly to human health and disease. NIH is looking for projects that advance fundamental genomics research by creating new analytical methods and approaches, developing tools and software at an early stage, and also improving, refining, or "hardening" existing software and tools that are considered high value to the broader biomedical genomics community. In other words, this is not limited to brand-new algorithms; it can also support making important tools more robust, usable, scalable, and reliable so they can be broadly adopted.

A central theme of the FOA is that the work should be enabling for genomics and generalizable across diseases and biological systems, rather than narrowly tailored to a single disorder, cohort, or niche use case. Applicants are expected to propose approaches that can transfer across multiple contexts in genomics and biomedical research. Another explicit expectation is that applications explain how proposed methods will scale as genomic datasets continue to grow. That typically means addressing computational efficiency, memory and storage considerations, parallelization or cloud/HPC readiness, and practical performance on increasingly large and complex datasets, not just proof-of-concept results on small sample sizes.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S. organizations such as state, county, city, 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; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status) other than institutions of higher education; for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and additional categories listed by NIH. The FOA also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicants such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), eligible federal agencies, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). This wide eligibility is meant to encourage participation from diverse institutions and communities, including organizations outside the continental United States and internationally.

Key administrative details from the source listing include an original closing date of 2025-01-07 and a creation date of 2021-07-29. The listing does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards, so applicants would typically need to consult the full FOA text and NIH budget guidance for the R21 mechanism to understand allowable budgets, project period expectations, and any institute- or program-specific preferences. Overall, this opportunity is aimed at pushing forward scalable, broadly useful computational genomics methods and software that can serve as infrastructure for the wider genomics field and ultimately accelerate biomedical discovery across many diseases and biological systems.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Investigator Initiated Research in Computational Genomics and Data Science (R21 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): 93.172.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-07-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-01-07. (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 PAR 21 255

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: