Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: November 16, 2026 (Resubmission) | February 16, 2027 (New) | March 16, 2027 (Resubmission) | June 16, 2027 (New) | July 16, 2027 (Resubmission) | October 16, 2027 (New) | November 16, 2027 (Resubmission) | February 16, 2028 (New) | March 16, 2028 (Resubmission) | June 16, 2028 (New) | July 16, 2028 (Resubmission) | October 16, 2028 (New) | November 16, 2028 (Resubmission) | February 16, 2029 (New) | March 16, 2029 (Resubmission; final closing)
Funding Amounts: Up to $100,000 in direct costs annually for up to 2 years; no cost sharing required
Summary: Seed funding to establish new approaches in priority substance use research areas and generate preliminary data for future grants.
Key Information: Preliminary data are not required; applications involving foreign subawards or subcontracts are ineligible.
Description
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of NIH, administers this consolidated START program through the R03 Small Grant mechanism. It supports pilot studies, secondary analyses, methodology development, and small, self-contained projects that help investigators enter high-priority areas of substance use research, including HIV comorbidity. Projects should generate proof-of-concept data and feasibility metrics for subsequent R01 or equivalent applications.
Research must address chemical and molecular probes, brain imaging tools, affective/cognitive/behavioral science, data science and computational modeling, or HIV/substance use intersections. The program supports basic, clinical, translational, epidemiological, and intervention science aimed at prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Early-stage and new investigators, investigators new to substance use research, and investigators new to HIV/AIDS research are encouraged to apply. Clinical trials are optional, and experiments need not be fully powered to test hypotheses.
