Limited Competition for the HEAL Initiative: HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study – Coordinating Administrative Core and Data Coordinating Center (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), with other NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) including the NIH HEAL Initiative intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for the Coordinating Administrative Core (HCAC) and the Data Coordinating Center (HDCC) for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study. This is a Forecast for a Limited Competition that will invite application(s) from eligible organization(s) to apply. Please see Eligibility Section for additional information. In accordance with NIH standard peer-review processes, the application(s) will be peer-reviewed, and only meritorious application(s) will be considered for funding. 

HBCD is a large cohort of pregnant women and their children (~N = 7,200 dyads) recruited during their 2nd or 3rd trimester of pregnancy and followed longitudinally into childhood. This is a renewal that will continue the funding for the second 5-year period. The HBCD cohort includes babies exposed pre- or perinatally to prescription and illicit opioids, marijuana, stimulants, alcohol and/or nicotine, and the study protocol includes assessments that span multiple domains of child and caregiver outcomes, including measures of growth, medical and family history, activity and sleep levels, biospecimens, social, emotional, and cognitive function, socioenvironmental and cultural factors, and brain indices using MRI and EEG. The HDCC coordinates, standardizes, and integrates all core data collection, processing, storage, and analytic activities of the consortium, and facilitates data sharing to the broader scientific community to enable broad use of HBCD data. The HCAC is responsible for leadership and management of the HBCD consortium; including, budget, performance metrics, protocol standardization, policies, outreach and dissemination plans across the consortium Applications are not being solicited at this time. Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. This limited competition NOFO will utilize the U24 activity code.