Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U24) | RFA RM 16 025

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 16 025

The NIH funding opportunity "Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U24)" (RFA-RM-16-025) supports creation of a central hub responsible for getting data, tools, and other products from the Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG) program into the hands of the broader research community. IDG is a Common Fund initiative focused on accelerating understanding of "understudied" proteins that are potentially druggable, meaning they could become future therapeutic targets if their biology and disease relevance are clarified. This announcement is part of a coordinated set of companion FOAs intended to build a multi-component research consortium that combines experimental and informatics approaches to uncover protein function and translate that knowledge into usable resources for scientists.

Within the IDG Implementation Phase consortium, the Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center (RDOC) is one of three core organizational components. The consortium includes multiple Data and Resource Generation Centers (DRGCs; RFA-RM-16-026) that produce datasets and experimental resources, and a Knowledge Management Center (KMC; RFA-RM-16-024) that organizes, integrates, and manages knowledge across the program. The RDOC role is distinct but tightly linked to both: it is meant to ensure that what the DRGCs generate and what the KMC curates are effectively distributed, discoverable, and adopted by end users. The overall emphasis is not only on producing new knowledge about understudied proteins, but also on making that knowledge practical to access and apply across the biomedical research ecosystem.

The award mechanism is a U24 cooperative agreement, which typically signals substantial NIH programmatic involvement during the project period. In practical terms, that means the awardee should expect active coordination with NIH and close collaboration with the other funded IDG centers, including shared planning, harmonized dissemination practices, and ongoing alignment with consortium-wide milestones. The activity category is health (CFDA 93.310), reflecting NIH's biomedical mission, and the work is framed as infrastructure and community-facing enablement rather than a stand-alone research project.

A key purpose of this RDOC is outreach: building awareness of IDG resources, lowering barriers to use, and encouraging adoption by relevant communities such as basic scientists, translational researchers, computational biologists, and drug discovery teams. Dissemination in this context generally implies more than simply posting files online. It often involves developing user-oriented distribution channels, documentation, training or educational materials, user support practices, and communications strategies that help researchers find the right datasets and tools, understand how to use them appropriately, and incorporate them into studies of target biology, pathway analysis, and therapeutic hypothesis generation. The RDOC also serves as a connective layer between resource producers and resource users, capturing user feedback and helping the consortium adapt outputs to real-world needs.

The FOA also situates the RDOC within a broader, evolving program strategy. It notes that, depending on funds, a future initiative might support Cutting Edge Informatics Tools (CEITs). That detail signals that IDG expects the informatics landscape to evolve and may later add specialized tool development beyond the functions covered by the KMC and RDOC. For applicants, this context matters because it highlights the importance of designing dissemination and outreach approaches that can scale and remain compatible with future tools and data types.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations: state, county, and city governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations (including those other than federally recognized governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit entities (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The FOA also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, AANAPISI institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, faith-based and community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it draws clear lines around foreign participation: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply as applicants, but foreign components, as defined by NIH policy, are allowed, meaning the project can include certain foreign activities or collaborations under NIH's foreign component rules when justified.

From the posted competition details, the opportunity was created on November 10, 2016, with an original closing date of March 14, 2017. NIH anticipated making one award under this announcement (Expected Awards: 1). The award ceiling is not specified in the provided source text, which is not uncommon for cooperative agreements where final budgets can depend on negotiations, scope, and the overall Common Fund allocation.

In short, this U24 FOA funded a single Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center to serve as the IDG program's outward-facing distribution and engagement engine. Its mission is to maximize the impact of IDG-generated datasets and tools by ensuring they are findable, usable, well-communicated, and broadly adopted, while coordinating closely with NIH and the other IDG consortium centers that generate and manage the underlying scientific content.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U24)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.310.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-11-10.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-03-14. (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.

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