Accelerating Medicines Partnership Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases: Technology and Analytic Cores (TACs) and Research Management Unit (RMU) (UC2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA AR 21 016

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA AR 21 016

This NIH funding opportunity (RFA-AR-21-016) supports the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) program focused on autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases by funding shared infrastructure rather than stand-alone hypothesis-driven research projects. The core idea is to build and operate centralized, high-capacity "Technology and Analytic Cores" (TACs) along with a "Research Management Unit" (RMU) that can coordinate, standardize, and accelerate the generation and analysis of complex biomedical data across the AMP consortium. The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement (UC2), which usually means NIH staff will have substantial programmatic involvement during the project period, with awardees working in close coordination with NIH and other AMP partners. Clinical trials are explicitly not allowed under this announcement, so the emphasis is on enabling platforms, analytics, and management capabilities that support discovery and translational pipeline work without running interventional clinical studies.

The TACs portion is intended to provide specialized, shared services and expertise that can be used by multiple project teams within AMP. In practical terms, these cores typically handle advanced technology workflows (for example, standardized sample processing, high-throughput assays, or other specialized experimental and computational pipelines) and the analytic side needed to convert raw outputs into usable, harmonized datasets and insights. While the specific technologies are not detailed in the text you provided, NIH "core" language in consortium settings usually implies rigorous standard operating procedures, quality control, reproducibility practices, data harmonization, and the capacity to support multiple sites and investigators in a consistent way. The goal is to reduce duplication, ensure comparability across studies, and speed up identification of disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets by making data generation and analysis more uniform and scalable.

The RMU component is essentially the operational backbone for a multi-organization collaboration. Its function is to keep a large consortium running smoothly by handling coordination, timelines, communication, reporting, meeting logistics, and cross-team integration. In a program like AMP, the RMU often acts as the central point for project tracking and governance support, helping different cores and research teams stay aligned on deliverables, data release expectations, and common standards. This sort of unit can also be responsible for managing documentation, facilitating decision-making processes, and ensuring that consortium activities remain on schedule and compliant with NIH expectations. Even when it is not explicitly stated, an RMU in this setting commonly supports consistent data stewardship practices, including organizing how results and datasets move from generation to analysis to sharing within the partnership.

Eligibility is broad across many U.S.-based organization types, reflecting NIH's intent to allow participation from academic, nonprofit, government, and industry performers capable of delivering large-scale core services. Eligible applicants include state, county, and local 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 governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The opportunity also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), faith-based or community-based organizations, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (other than federally recognized), regional organizations, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), eligible agencies of the federal government, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, non-U.S. (foreign) institutions cannot apply as the main applicant, and non-U.S. 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 foreign collaborations or performance components if they meet NIH's definition and are appropriately justified and approved.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary grant program run by the National Institutes of Health, and it sits within the broad health funding activity category. The CFDA numbers listed (93.121, 93.313, 93.846, 93.855) indicate the funding streams through which the awards may be tracked, spanning NIH institutes and programs that support arthritis and musculoskeletal/skin diseases, research infrastructure and comparative medicine components, and other related health research areas. The original closing date was July 15, 2021, and the notice was created March 31, 2021, which is helpful context if you are looking at this as a historical or archived opportunity rather than an open solicitation. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not provided in the excerpt, but because this is a cooperative agreement for consortium cores, budgets are often structured around defined deliverables, staffing, platform operations, and consortium support needs rather than small investigator-led project budgets.

In short, this opportunity is aimed at organizations that can run high-reliability technology and analytics operations and/or provide centralized consortium management for AMP's autoimmune and immune-mediated disease efforts. The intent is to create shared, standardized capabilities that make large, multi-site biomedical research programs move faster and produce more consistent, integratable data, while staying outside the scope of clinical trials.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Accelerating Medicines Partnership Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases: Technology and Analytic Cores (TACs) and Research Management Unit (RMU) (UC2 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): 93.121, 93.313, 93.846, 93.855.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-03-31.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-07-15. (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 RFA AR 21 016

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