Limited Competition: Sickle Pan-African Research Consortium Clinical Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA HL 21 007

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA HL 21 007

The Limited Competition: Sickle Pan-African Research Consortium Clinical Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Optional) opportunity (RFA-HL-21-007) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) cooperative agreement designed to keep the Sickle Pan-African Research Consortium (SPARCO) moving forward by funding a single Clinical Coordinating Center (CCC). This is a limited competition specifically seeking an application from the existing SPARCO Hub in Tanzania to continue serving as the coordinating backbone for the next phase of the consortium. The overall purpose is to strengthen and expand a sub-Saharan Africa-wide sickle cell disease research and care infrastructure that can support rigorous epidemiologic, translational, and clinical studies over the long term.

At the center of the FOA is the expectation that the Tanzania-based CCC will coordinate an expanded SPARCO that includes the established sites in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania, while also bringing in up to three additional sites from other sub-Saharan African countries. These coordinated sites, together with the Sickle Africa Data Coordinating Center (SADaCC; referenced separately under RFA-HL-21-008), will collectively form the Sickle Cell Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Network. The network is positioned as a sustainable, shared platform meant to accelerate sickle cell disease research by making it easier to identify patients, track outcomes, compare findings across countries, and support future studies that require consistent data and coordinated operations.

A major deliverable emphasized in the announcement is the expansion of a sickle hemoglobinopathy registry database. The registry is expected to do more than store data; it should enable patient tracking and follow-up across time and across sites, effectively acting as an infrastructure backbone for future investigations. The FOA specifically calls for a practical, well-justified plan that identifies the key database elements to collect and explains how those data will be harmonized across countries and clinical settings. That includes aligning sickle cell disease phenotype definitions, creating or adopting common ontologies, and putting in place consistent approaches so that a diagnosis, complication, treatment exposure, or outcome means the same thing from one site to another. In practice, this is meant to reduce fragmentation and make multi-site analyses and comparisons credible and efficient.

Because this is a cooperative agreement, the CCC is also expected to operate in close coordination with multiple partners and oversight bodies. The FOA highlights integration of consortium activities with the Data Coordinating Center (SADaCC), NHLBI program leadership, the network Steering Committee, and an Observational Study Monitoring Board (OSMB). The CCC is expected to help ensure that governance, study operations, safety and monitoring practices for observational work, data flows, and reporting are all aligned across the network. It also must connect its activities to existing training programs so that the network is not just collecting data, but also building lasting research and clinical capacity in participating countries.

Beyond research coordination, the FOA explicitly includes an implementation and care-improvement dimension. Applicants are expected to describe how they will help develop regionally appropriate standards of sickle cell disease care, reflecting the realities of sub-Saharan African health systems, available diagnostics, medication access, and referral pathways. The CCC is also expected to organize research and clinical skill development activities, which signals that workforce development (training in good clinical practice, research methods, standardized clinical assessment, and study conduct) is part of the intended impact. This focus recognizes that sustainable progress depends on building local expertise and consistent clinical and research practices, not only on funding individual studies.

The CCC role also extends to coordinating the sites so they can design, launch, and run multi-site sickle cell disease cohort studies, including the practical work of developing protocols, supporting site readiness, standardizing procedures, and enabling consistent follow-up over time. In addition to cohort studies, the FOA calls out implementation research focused on preventive and therapeutic practices, meaning the network is expected to evaluate how to effectively deliver and scale interventions in real-world settings, not just whether those interventions work in ideal conditions. Taken together, the CCC is expected to serve as the operational engine that aligns people, processes, data standards, and study execution across a growing African network.

Administratively, this opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and uses the cooperative agreement funding instrument, reflecting substantial NIH involvement in steering and coordination. The activity area is health (CFDA 93.839). Although the general eligibility list includes a broad range of U.S.-style organizational categories, the FOA text makes clear the competition is limited and is seeking the application from the current SPARCO Hub in Tanzania. The posting indicates an expected single award, with an original closing date of June 8, 2020, and lists an award ceiling of 0 (which generally indicates applicants should refer to the FOA details for budget guidance rather than relying on a fixed cap in the summary field).

• The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Sickle Pan-African Research Consortium Clinical Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.839.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 12, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 08, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• 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 (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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