Chronic Kidney Diseases of UnceRtain Etiology (CKDu) in Agricultural Communities (CURE) Research Consortium - Scientific Data Coordinating Center (SDCC) (U24 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 20 019

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 20 019

The Chronic Kidney Diseases of UnceRtain Etiology (CKDu) in Agricultural Communities (CURE) Research Consortium - Scientific Data Coordinating Center (SDCC) opportunity (RFA-DK-20-019) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement (U24, clinical trial not allowed) focused on building the central coordinating and scientific backbone for a new, multi-component research consortium studying CKDu in agricultural communities. The underlying public health problem is CKDu, a form of chronic kidney disease that appears in certain populations, often agricultural workers, without the typical major causes such as diabetes or longstanding hypertension. The overall intent is to enable coordinated, high-quality human research that can clarify causes, characterize early disease and progression, and lay the groundwork for identifying therapeutic targets and practical public health interventions, while explicitly not funding clinical intervention trials under this announcement.

A key feature of this FOA is that it does not fund stand-alone research at a single site. Instead, it funds the SDCC as the organizing center that supports and guides the entire CURE Consortium as it develops and harmonizes epidemiologic study protocols across multiple field sites. The SDCC is expected to provide scientific leadership on study design and analytic approaches, ensure consistency and comparability across sites, and keep the consortium operating as a unified program rather than a set of disconnected projects. Because this is a cooperative agreement, the NIH is expected to have substantial programmatic involvement, meaning the awardee will work closely with NIH and other consortium components on planning, coordination, and execution.

Functionally, the SDCC role described in the FOA includes three major responsibility areas. First, protocol development support: helping the consortium create common protocols for evaluating participants with early manifestations of CKDu and appropriate control participants, and supporting the development of shared approaches that make cross-site comparisons meaningful. Second, data management and analysis: building and operating systems and processes to receive, clean, harmonize, store, and analyze data produced across field sites and cores, and providing statistical and analytic leadership so the consortium can answer its priority scientific questions with rigor. Third, overall project management: coordinating timelines, meetings, reporting, documentation, decision-making workflows, and cross-component collaboration so that field operations, lab/analytic cores, and exposure assessment resources work together efficiently.

The opportunity also makes clear how the SDCC fits into a broader consortium structure. The CURE Consortium is described as consisting of (1) the Scientific Data Coordinating Center (funded under this FOA), (2) Field Sites conducting participant evaluation and related on-the-ground study activities, (3) a Renal Analytic Core that contributes specialized kidney-related analytic capabilities, and (4) the NIEHS Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR), which supports exposure assessment and analysis. A central scientific emphasis is harmonization: the consortium is expected to agree on common strategies for biological sampling (what specimens are collected, when, and how), environmental assessment (what exposures are measured and by what methods), and analytic strategies (how data and samples are used to answer etiologic and progression questions). The SDCC is the piece intended to make that harmonization operational and scientifically coherent.

Several scope boundaries are explicitly stated. This FOA will not support intervention trials intended to prevent or treat CKDu, which is why it is labeled clinical trial not allowed. It is also intended to support only human studies; applications involving animal studies or model systems are considered non-responsive. At the same time, the consortium is designed to support discovery-oriented research that can move the field toward identifying likely causal factors, understanding disease progression, and pinpointing plausible intervention points for future testing, even if those interventions are not funded as trials within this specific SDCC award.

Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based organizations and government entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments; 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 other than federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status, other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The FOA also highlights 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 eligible federal agencies, emphasizing inclusivity across institutional types that may contribute relevant expertise or community partnerships.

Foreign eligibility is limited in a way that is typical for many NIH opportunities but is spelled out clearly here. 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 not eligible to apply. However, foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed, meaning a U.S. applicant may be able to include certain types of foreign collaboration under NIH rules even though a foreign institution cannot be the applicant organization.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity under a cooperative agreement mechanism, with activity categories spanning environment, food and nutrition, and health, and CFDA numbers 93.113 and 93.847. The original closing date listed for this announcement was 2020-11-10, and the announcement does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided text. Overall, the FOA is aimed at building the centralized data, analytics, and coordination capacity needed for a multi-site, human-focused CKDu research consortium to generate comparable, high-quality evidence about causes and progression in agricultural communities, while keeping the work firmly in the observational and discovery space rather than treatment or prevention trials.

• The National Institutes of Health in the environment, food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Chronic Kidney Diseases of UnceRtain Etiology (CKDu) in Agricultural Communities (CURE) Research Consortium - Scientific Data Coordinating Center (SDCC) (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): 93.113, 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-07-24.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-11-10. (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.

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