Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) Operations and Collaborations Center (UM2 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA HD 23 021

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA HD 23 021

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) Operations and Collaborations Center (UM2 Clinical Trial Optional) funding opportunity (RFA HD 23 021) is a National Institutes of Health cooperative agreement designed to strengthen the national research infrastructure that supports HIV prevention and treatment studies focused on adolescents and young adults. The core idea is to fund an operations-and-collaboration hub for the ATN, helping the broader network consistently design, launch, and run high-quality studies that address urgent public health needs for youth ages 13 to 24 who are either at risk for HIV or living with HIV. A central emphasis is the meaningful inclusion of minors, reflecting the reality that many prevention and care challenges begin before adulthood and that evidence-based interventions often need to be tested with younger participants to be truly applicable.

Through this program, the ATN is expected to have the capacity to develop and conduct a wide range of trial types, not limited to a single approach. The FOA specifically highlights innovative behavioral interventions, community-based studies, translational work that helps move discoveries into real-world practice, and biomedical trials that can include therapeutic strategies as well as microbicide and vaccine studies. In plain terms, the opportunity is aimed at supporting a coordinated platform where researchers can test what actually works for youth in different settings, including clinics and community environments, and where studies can be executed with the rigor needed for results to influence clinical guidelines and public health programs.

Because this is a cooperative agreement rather than a standard grant, applicants should expect substantial involvement from NIH in the funded work. Cooperative agreements typically mean the funder is not just providing money but is also an active partner in shaping priorities, ensuring coordination, and maintaining performance expectations across the network. The goal is to keep research operations aligned, reduce duplication, and accelerate the pace at which promising interventions can be evaluated and, when effective, scaled.

The FOA encourages applications from investigators who bring fresh thinking and novel approaches to adolescent HIV challenges. Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based organizations and reflects a desire to include entities with strong connections to affected communities and youth-serving systems. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, along with public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education. It also includes Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments), public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), and small businesses, as well as other organizations that meet NIH requirements. The announcement also explicitly calls out a variety of institution types as encouraged participants, 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), along with faith-based or community-based organizations and eligible federal agencies. This broad eligibility signals a strong interest in diverse partnerships and research that is grounded in the lived realities of the populations most impacted.

At the same time, there are clear geographic and organizational limits related to foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations) are not eligible to apply, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply, and foreign components as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement are not allowed. In practice, this means the work must be led and carried out within allowable U.S.-based organizational structures, without foreign components embedded in the project.

Administratively, this opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding using the cooperative agreement mechanism, and it sits within federal activity categories tied to education, health, income security, and social services. The CFDA numbers listed for this opportunity are 93.242, 93.279, and 93.865. The original closing date shown is March 31, 2022, and the listed award ceiling is $6,250,000. The FOA creation date is December 1, 2021. While the summary information provided does not specify the exact number of expected awards, the ceiling indicates a large, centralized award consistent with a network operations and coordination function rather than a small single-project research grant.

Overall, the opportunity is about building and maintaining the operational backbone and collaborative capacity of the ATN so that the network can reliably deliver innovative, youth-focused HIV intervention trials. It prioritizes rigorous research that is inclusive of minors, supports a broad range of intervention types from behavioral to biomedical, and encourages participation from a wide array of U.S. institutions and community-connected organizations positioned to reach adolescents and young adults most affected by HIV.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) Operations and Collaborations Center (UM2 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242, 93.279, 93.865.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-12-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-03-31. (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 $6,250,000.00 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.

Apply for RFA HD 23 021

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