Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: December 4, 2024 | June 4, 2025 | December 4, 2025 | June 4, 2026 | December 4, 2026 (new, renewal, resubmission, revision)
Funding Amounts: Up to $300,000 direct costs over 2 years; max $200,000 direct costs in any single year; NIH expects to fund 20–24 awards with ~$6M total in FY25.
Summary: Supports development and enhancement of sustainable, robust, and reusable research software tools for open science using best practices and FAIR principles.
Key Information: Clinical trials are not allowed; data generation and data analysis projects are not in scope; foreign organizations are not eligible to apply.
Description
This NIH opportunity aims to enhance the sustainability, robustness, and impact of research software tools that are essential for biomedical, clinical, behavioral, social, and health-related research. The program supports the adoption of best practices in software engineering, design principles, and open science, including the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles for research software. Projects should focus on improving existing software tools and workflows, fostering collaborations between researchers and software engineers, and promoting community engagement and dissemination.
The program is not intended for data generation or data analysis projects, but rather for the development, refactoring, and dissemination of software tools that enable open science and reproducible research.
Due Dates
- Letter of Intent (optional): 30 days prior to each application due date
- Application Deadlines:
- December 4, 2024
- June 4, 2025
- December 4, 2025
- June 4, 2026
- December 4, 2026
All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization.
Funding Amount
- Total Direct Costs: Up to $300,000 for the entire 2-year project period
- Annual Direct Cost Limit: No more than $200,000 in any single year
- Project Duration: Up to 2 years
- Anticipated Number of Awards: 20–24 awards in FY25
- Total Program Funding: Up to $6 million in FY25
Eligibility
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Eligible Applicants:
- Public/State controlled and private institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions)
- For-profit organizations (including small businesses)
- State, county, city, township, and special district governments
- Independent school districts
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- Native American tribal governments (federally recognized and other)
- Faith-based and community-based organizations
- Regional organizations
- U.S. territories and possessions
- Eligible agencies of the federal government
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Not Eligible:
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations)
- Non-domestic components of U.S. organizations
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Foreign components (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are allowed within U.S. organizations.
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Applicant organizations may submit more than one application if each is scientifically distinct.
Application Process
- Submission: Applications must be submitted electronically via Grants.gov, NIH ASSIST, or an institutional system-to-system solution.
- Required Registrations: SAM, Grants.gov, eRA Commons (for both organization and PD/PI)
- Letter of Intent: Optional, but recommended; email to sustainablesoftware@nih.gov
- Application Format: Follow the NIH How to Apply - Application Guide and the specific instructions in the NOFO.
- Budget: Include travel for the PD/PI to attend one meeting per year in the U.S.
- Research Plan: Must include a robust software development plan, milestones, metrics, and a dissemination strategy. Open-source development is encouraged.
- Resource Sharing: A software dissemination plan is required; NIH encourages the most permissive license possible.
- Data Management and Sharing Plan: Not required for this NOFO.
Additional Information
- Scope: Only software tool development, refactoring, and dissemination are in scope. Data generation and data analysis projects are not supported.
- Clinical Trials: Not allowed under this opportunity.
- Review Criteria: Emphasis on significance, investigator expertise in software development, innovation enabled by the software, soundness of the development and dissemination plan, and the scientific environment.
- Multiple Applications: Allowed if each is scientifically distinct; duplicate or highly overlapping applications will not be reviewed simultaneously.
- Award Administration: All NIH policies and terms apply.
External Links
Contact Information