Center for Exposome Research Coordination to Accelerate Precision Environmental Health (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA ES 23 010

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA ES 23 010

The Center for Exposome Research Coordination to Accelerate Precision Environmental Health (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity (RFA-ES-23-010) that supports the creation of a Center for Exposome Research Coordination (CERC). The main purpose of the CERC is to serve the broader biomedical and public health research community by coordinating and advancing exposome research, with the long-term goal of speeding progress toward precision environmental health. In practical terms, the CERC is meant to function as a hub that helps researchers align approaches, share knowledge, and build common standards so the field can generate more comparable, reproducible, and clinically meaningful insights about how environmental exposures influence health across the life course.

This opportunity is structured as a cooperative agreement (U24), which generally means NIH expects to have substantial involvement during the project. Rather than simply funding a set of independent activities, the award mechanism is designed to support active coordination, shared decision-making, and collaborative planning between the funded center and NIH. The notice also specifies "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," indicating the supported work should not include a clinical trial as defined by NIH. The activities are expected to be coordination- and infrastructure-oriented, emphasizing community-facing functions like convening stakeholders, developing best practices, and supporting the research ecosystem, rather than running interventional human studies.

A central theme of the CERC is engagement with existing and ongoing exposome initiatives worldwide. The intent is not to reinvent parallel structures, but to connect and amplify what is already happening across programs, cohorts, platforms, and consortia. By actively linking these efforts, the CERC is expected to promote methodological advancement (for example, improving exposure measurement strategies, data harmonization approaches, and analytical frameworks), encourage adoption of best practices, and reduce fragmentation in how exposome research is conducted and reported. This coordinating role is also aimed at making exposome research more scalable and more directly usable for precision environmental health, where individual-level variability in exposure profiles and susceptibility can inform risk prediction and prevention strategies.

Training and education are explicit priorities of the center. The CERC is expected to provide learning opportunities that strengthen the workforce and broaden access to exposome methods, tools, and concepts. That can include developing educational materials, hosting workshops and short courses, offering webinars, and creating guidance that helps both new and experienced investigators navigate study design, measurement technologies, data processing, and interpretation in exposome research. In addition, the CERC is expected to foster national and international collaborations, which may involve building networks, organizing scientific meetings or working groups, and creating mechanisms for cross-project communication so that investigators, communities, and institutions can more easily coordinate multi-site or multi-cohort efforts.

Eligibility for this opportunity is broad across U.S.-based organizations and governmental entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The announcement also highlights additional eligible applicant types, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it clearly states that non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. However, foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed, which leaves room for certain project elements to include foreign collaborations or activities under NIH rules while keeping the applicant organization itself U.S.-based.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and falls under activity areas spanning education, environment, and health. It lists multiple CFDA numbers (93.113, 93.310, 93.313, 93.399, 93.846, 93.853, 93.866), reflecting the NIH programmatic landscape that can support aspects of this work. The original closing date shown in the source data is November 30, 2023, and the posting (creation) date is September 11, 2023. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not provided in the supplied text, so applicants would typically consult the full funding announcement for budget guidance, project period expectations, and detailed review criteria.

Overall, this grant opportunity is aimed at building a coordinating center that makes exposome research more connected, methodologically consistent, and widely accessible through standards, training, and collaboration. The emphasis is less on generating a single new dataset and more on strengthening the underlying infrastructure and community practices that allow exposome science to mature into a cornerstone of precision environmental health.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Center for Exposome Research Coordination to Accelerate Precision Environmental Health (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.310, 93.313, 93.399, 93.846, 93.853, 93.866.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-09-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-11-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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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