The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is seeking applications for rigorous, pre-clinical research projects that are based on repurposing existing drugs or biologics. Through this new funding opportunity, NCATS anticipates committing $4.3 million in fiscal year 2016 to issue 10 to 15 awards in support of studies that establish the rationale for a clinical trial.
Pre-clinical studies funded through this initiative will serve as “use cases” to demonstrate the utility of an independent crowdsourcing effort or of a computational algorithm to predict new therapeutic uses of an existing drug or biologic. The goal of an individual project must be to explore the potential new use of an existing investigational therapeutic or one already approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat another disease.
Interested researchers should submit a letter of intent by Dec. 13, 2015. Applications are due Jan. 13, 2016.
To learn more about RFA-TR-16-001, contact Therapeutics.Discovery@nih.gov.