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Common Fund Programs

The NIH Common Fund is a funding entity within the NIH that supports bold scientific programs that catalyze discovery across all biomedical and behavioral research. These programs create a space where investigators and multiple NIH Institutes and Centers collaborate on innovative research expected to address high priority challenges for the NIH as a whole and make a broader impact in the scientific community. For more information on specific Common Fund Current Programs, Archived Initiatives, or Common Fund-supported COVID-19 Research, click on each tab below.

CURRENT PROGRAMS

 


General Categories of Common Fund Programs

The goals of Common Fund programs align with three general categories:

Triangle Infographic

ARCHIVED INITIATIVES


Common Fund programs capitalize on emerging opportunities to catalyze the rate of progress across multiple biomedical fields. Programs are expected to transform the way a broad spectrum of health research is conducted. Initiatives that comprise Common Fund programs are intended to be catalytic in nature by providing limited term investments in strategic areas to stimulate further research through IC-funded mechanisms.

For these reasons, programs are intended to transition out of the Common Fund in 10 years or less as they mature.

For more information on specific former Common Fund programs, please refer to the programs listed above.

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Common Fund received approximately $137M to be spent in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. As a result several awards were funded across a range of biomedical research areas. 

COVID-19 RESEARCH

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
awards to stimulate innovative research
awards to stimulate innovative research


Support for COVID-19 Research

The NIH Common Fund received $30 Million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, 2020 to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. The Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC), which manages the Common Fund is using these funds to stimulate innovative research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease it causes, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). OSC issued immediate funding opportunities in Fiscal Year 2020 for active Common Fund researchers to conduct SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 research. Awards issued through these funding opportunities are listed below.

Future Research Funding Opportunities

In future years, OSC will use CARES Act funds allocated to the NIH Common Fund for researchers to develop new research projects starting in Fiscal Year 2021. Continue to check this page for updates on future SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 research funding opportunities from the NIH Common Fund.

For a list of funding opportunities from multiple NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices — including the NIH Common Fund — please visit the COVID-19 page of information for NIH applicants and recipients of NIH funding.

Emergency Competitive Revisions for Research on SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19

In Fiscal Year 2020, the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC), issued a Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Availability of Emergency Competitive Revisions for Research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (NOT-RM-20-015) to stimulate innovative research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease it causes, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

OSC issued emergency competitive revisions to Common Fund grants and cooperative agreements to support innovative research on COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 in areas of research including behavioral/social science, health disparities, and novel therapeutics, that fits within the mission of an emergency response to provide critical expertise, resources or activities. A list of funded projects is available on the Common Fund Support for COVID-19 funded research section below.

Funded Research

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NOTICE OF SPECIAL INTEREST (NOSI): NOT-RM-20-015
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Availability of Emergency Competitive Revisions for Research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) NOT-RM-20-015
PI Name Institution Name Title Common Fund Program
ASHLEY, EUAN A (contact) 
WHEELER, MATTHEW THOMAS
STANFORD UNIVERSITY Stanford MoTrPAC Bioinformatics Center 

Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC)

BILAL, USAMA DREXEL UNIVERSITY The Health Consequences of Urban Scaling

NIH Director's Early Independence Award (EIA)

BRAUN, ROBERT E (contact) 
MURRAY, STEPHEN A 
WHITE, JACQUELINE K 
JACKSON LABORATORY The Jackson Laboratory Knockout Mouse Production and Phenotyping Project (JAX KOMP2)

Knockout Mouse Phenotyping Program (KOMP2)

DEKOSKY, BRANDON JAMES UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE Antibody Display Libraries for Precision Screening of Antibody Immune Responses to SARS CoV-2

NIH Director's Early Independence Award (EIA)

GOLUB, TODD R. (contact) 
SUBRAMANIAN, ARAVIND
BROAD INSTITUTE, INC. Discovering Existing Medicines that Abrogate Cellular Responses to SARS CoV-2 Infection 
SANJANA, NEVILLE  NEW YORK GENOME CENTER In situ functional genomics to understand transcriptional regulation

NIH Director's New Innovator Award (NIA)

TULSKY, JAMES A. (contact) 
VOLANDES, ANGELO
DANA-FARBER CANCER INST A Telehealth Advance Care Planning Intervention for COVID-19 in New York City
ZHANG, HAICHONG WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE Robotic Lung Ultrasound for Triage of COVID-19 Patients in a Resource Limited Environment NIH Director's Early Independence Award (EIA)
2021 NIH Director's Transformative Research Emergency COVID-19 Awards (RFA-RM-20-020)

Due to the public health emergency, the Transformative Research Award and Early Independence Award issued additional funding opportunities for COVID-19-related research on the prevention of, preparation for, or response to coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 using funds provided through the CARES Act.

PI Name Institution Name Title
DEB, ARJUN (contact); ARUMUGASWAMI, VAITHILINGARAJA ; GRAEBER, THOMAS G; PELLEGRINI, MATTEO UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Metabolic and Epigenetic Reprogramming of Vital Organs in SARS-CoV-2 Induced Systemic Toxicity
MANCEBO, RICARDO GENENDEAVOR, LLC Development of a Handheld Rapid Air Sensing System to Monitor and Quantify SARS-CoV-2 in Aerosols in Real-Time
RAY, ANIMESH (contact); HERNANDEZ, JENIFFER BERTHA KECK GRADUATE INST OF APPLIED LIFE SCIS Rapid Response for Pandemics: Single Cell Sequencing and Deep Learning to Predict Antibody Sequences Against an Emerging Antigen
WEINBERGER, LEOR S (contact); RODICK, ROBERT VXBIOSCIENCES, INC. Autonomously Deploying, Co-Evolving SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral: A New Paradigm for Pandemic Prevention
YAKOUB, ABRAAM M (contact); LAZARTIGUES, ERIC D; TSENG, CHIEN-TE K UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA SARS-CoV-2 Tropism in the Brain and Its Relationship to COVID-19 Pathogenesis

This page last reviewed on February 27, 2024