Open Funding Opportunities

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to solicit applications for pilot projects to identify new druggable targets for pain within the understudied druggable proteome. Awards will support generation of preliminary data and/or tools around eligible understudied protein(s) listed in this NOFO. This NOFO is intended to jumpstart research on understudied proteins within the context of pain and pain management and provide applicants with sufficient funding to perform basic biochemical and/or biological work to further the characterization of understudied proteins to identify new druggable targets for pain. This NOFO is part of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term^® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative^®, to accelerate the development of novel medications to treat all aspects of the opioid addiction cycle, including progression to chronic use, withdrawal symptoms, craving, relapse, and overdose.

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to support preclinical optimization and development of safe, effective, and non-addictive small molecule and biologic therapeutics to treat pain. The goal of the program is to accelerate the optimization and development of promising early therapeutic molecules and to facilitate readiness for the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) or other Phase II clinical studies.

Through targeted research efforts, the NIH HEAL Initiative aims to support the development of safe and effective devices to treat pain with little or no addiction liability. This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is designed to support interdisciplinary research teams of multiple PDs/PIs to investigate the mechanisms of action of pain relief using FDA-approved or -cleared medical devices with the overall goal of optimizing therapeutic outcomes for these technologies. Program teams are expected to accomplish goals that require considerable synergy and collaborative interactions. Teams must leverage appropriate multi-disciplinary expertise to develop new principles and methods for experimentation, analysis, and interpretation. Project goals should not be achievable with a collection of individual efforts or projects. Teams are encouraged to consider objectives that will produce major advances in the understanding of pain relief by medical devices that are likely to improve strategies for pain management.