Activities to Promote Research Collaborations on Immune-Related Adverse Events (APRC-irAEs) Associated with Cancer Immunotherapy (Admin Supp) | PA 17 248

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 17 248

Activities to Promote Research Collaborations on Immune-Related Adverse Events (APRC-irAEs) Associated with Cancer Immunotherapy (Admin Supp) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) administrative supplement funding opportunity (PA-17-248) designed to spark new, collaborative pilot studies focused on one of the biggest practical barriers in immuno-oncology: immune-related adverse events (irAEs). These toxicities can look like autoimmune or autoinflammatory disease triggered or unmasked by cancer immunotherapies, and they can limit treatment, reduce quality of life, and sometimes become life-threatening. The central aim of the program is to generate early-stage data and fresh concepts that can ultimately help reduce how often these adverse events occur and/or how severe they become, without undermining the anti-tumor benefits of immunotherapy.

A key feature of the announcement is that it is intentionally built to push multidisciplinary team science rather than single-lab, single-discipline projects. The FOA encourages collaborations that bridge expertise in cancer immunology and immunotherapy mechanisms with deep expertise in immune tolerance, autoimmunity, and inflammatory disease biology. To make those bridges more likely to form, NIH explicitly encourages teams that pair a current National Cancer Institute (NCI) grantee with either a current National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grantee or a current National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) grantee. The practical idea is that investigators who already have active, relevant NIH support in these domains can combine complementary strengths, move quickly, and test pilot concepts that might not yet be ready for a full-scale R01-style effort.

Because this is an administrative supplement opportunity, it is oriented toward adding a targeted, collaborative set of activities onto existing funded research programs rather than starting entirely from scratch. In other words, the expectation is that the pilot work will leverage active awards and existing infrastructure to rapidly explore new hypotheses, methods, or cross-cutting approaches. The output NIH is aiming for is typically the kind of proof-of-concept evidence or enabling resources that can support larger, more definitive studies later, such as mechanistic insights into why irAEs arise, biomarkers that predict risk or severity, strategies to prevent or blunt toxicity, or approaches that separate anti-tumor immunity from pathological self-reactivity.

The opportunity sits within NIHs broader education and health research activity space and is associated with CFDA numbers 93.396, 93.846, and 93.855, reflecting the involvement of NIH institutes aligned with cancer, immunology, and autoimmune/inflammatory disease research. The original posting indicates an original closing date of June 15, 2017, and the source record does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided fields, which is not unusual for certain supplement announcements where funding levels can depend on institute priorities and the parent awards being supplemented.

Eligibility is broad across many U.S.-based organization types, reflecting NIHs standard approach to enabling participation from academic, nonprofit, governmental, and certain commercial entities. Eligible applicants listed 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 tribal governments; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in that category); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other organizations that fit NIH eligibility rules. The FOA also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant 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 (AANAPISISs), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. This emphasis signals an interest in broadening participation and ensuring that capable institutions across many settings can be part of these collaboration-driven pilots.

At the same time, the announcement is clear about strict limitations regarding foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply. Non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible, and foreign components, as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed. In practical terms, the work supported under this FOA is intended to be fully U.S.-based, without formal foreign components embedded in the proposed research plan.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as a targeted NIH mechanism to accelerate cross-institute collaboration around irAEs, using small, fast-moving pilot projects to open new lines of investigation. By incentivizing partnerships between NCI-funded cancer immunotherapy experts and NIAID or NIAMS-funded autoimmunity and tolerance experts, the program tries to address irAEs in a way that is both mechanistically grounded and clinically meaningful, with the long-term objective of making cancer immunotherapy safer while preserving or enhancing its effectiveness.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Activities to Promote Research Collaborations on Immune-Related Adverse Events (APRC-irAEs) Associated with Cancer Immunotherapy (Admin Supp)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.396, 93.846, 93.855.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-04-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-06-15. (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.

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