Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: June 16, 2025 (New) | July 16, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | October 16, 2025 (New) | November 16, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | Additional cycles through July 2027
Funding Amounts: Up to $275,000 direct costs over 2 years; no more than $200,000 in any single year; project period max 2 years.
Summary: Supports community-engaged research to develop novel, culturally and linguistically responsive tools for measuring language development in children.
Key Information: Community Engagement Plan is required and must be included for application review.
This NIH funding opportunity supports exploratory and developmental (R21) research projects that broaden the conceptualization of environmental qualities supporting language development in children and focus on developing novel measures of children's language development. The initiative emphasizes strengths-focused, culturally and linguistically responsive, and generalizable tools to advance understanding of children's language development, impairment, and predictors thereof.
Projects must incorporate community-engaged research, meaningfully involving community partners throughout the research process—from study design to dissemination. The scope is intentionally broad, encompassing both conceptual/theoretical and practical/tool development work, and is inclusive of all communicative contexts (not limited to spoken language).
This opportunity is aligned with the NIH TALK Initiative but is not limited to late talkers or language delay. It is intended for exploratory, pilot, or developmental work; projects with substantial preliminary data or a large-scale focus should consider the companion R01 opportunity.
All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. See the NIH standard due dates for more details.
Eligible applicants include:
Individuals: Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as PD(s)/PI(s) may apply.
Multiple applications: Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided each is scientifically distinct.
| Topic | Contact Name / Office | Email / Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific/Research | Virginia Salo, PhD (NICHD) | virginia.salo@nih.gov / 301-402-3682 |
| Grants Management | Marianne Galczynski (NICHD) | Marianne.Galczynski@nih.gov / 301-496-1170 |
| General Grants Info | NIH Grants Information | GrantsInfo@nih.gov / 301-480-7075 |
| Application Support | eRA Service Desk | eRA Helpdesk / 301-402-7469 or 866-504-9552 |
| Grants.gov Support | Grants.gov Customer Support | support@grants.gov / 800-518-4726 |