High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Platform for Discovery of Medications to Treat Alcohol Use Disorder (R41/R42 Clinical Trials Not Allowed) | RFA AA 24 002

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA AA 24 002

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering an STTR funding opportunity focused on building better high-throughput screening (HTS) tools to speed up the discovery of medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD). The grant, titled "High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Platform for Discovery of Medications to Treat Alcohol Use Disorder (R41/R42 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-AA-24-002; CFDA 93.273), is aimed specifically at small business concerns working in partnership with a research institution under the STTR mechanism. The core idea is to support projects that create a brand-new HTS platform or meaningfully optimize an existing one so it can be used to identify and prioritize drug-like compounds that may eventually become treatments for AUD.

The scientific focus is on HTS assays that are run either in vivo or in vitro. For in vivo screening, the NOFO emphasizes the use of small vertebrate models (but explicitly excludes rodents) and invertebrate model organisms. In practice, this points to systems that can be scaled for screening large numbers of compounds efficiently, such as zebrafish or other small aquatic vertebrates, as well as invertebrates that can model relevant neurobehavioral or cellular responses. For in vitro approaches, the opportunity allows human cell-based and tissue-based models, which can include cell cultures, organoids, engineered tissues, or similar systems where alcohol exposure and potential therapeutic effects can be measured in a controlled and scalable way. The unifying requirement across these model types is throughput: the platform should be suitable for screening many compounds and conditions in a reproducible, standardized manner.

A key technical requirement is that the assay or platform must be demonstrably sensitive to a range of alcohol concentrations and must also be able to detect treatment effects from candidate compounds. In other words, the model needs to show measurable changes when alcohol levels change, and those changes need to be quantifiable in a way that is accurate and repeatable. The outcomes produced by the platform (behavioral readouts, physiological measurements, molecular markers, imaging-based signals, viability metrics, functional electrophysiology signals, or other quantitative endpoints) must be robust enough to serve as reliable outcome variables for screening. This requirement is important because the purpose of the platform is not just to model alcohol exposure, but to provide a dependable signal that can be used to distinguish promising therapeutic candidates from non-effective ones.

From an eligibility standpoint, the competition is limited to small businesses using the STTR mechanism (R41/R42). Foreign organizations are not eligible to apply, and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible to apply. However, the notice indicates that foreign components, as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, may be allowed in some cases, meaning limited, well-justified foreign involvement could potentially be permissible if it fits NIH policy and is appropriately described and approved. The funding instrument is a grant, categorized under health, and it uses the R41/R42 phased structure typical of STTR, where projects often begin with an early-stage feasibility and development phase followed by a later-stage expansion/validation phase, though the exact project structure would need to align with NIH STTR expectations.

Administratively, the original closing date listed for the opportunity is April 9, 2024, and the award ceiling is $500,000. While the listing does not specify the expected number of awards in the provided data, the ceiling gives a sense of the intended scale: these are development-focused awards meant to produce a working and credible screening platform rather than to fund large multi-year clinical programs. Clinical trials are not allowed under this NOFO, which reinforces that the deliverable NIH is seeking here is the screening capability itself (and potentially the identification of candidate compounds through that platform), not the testing of interventions in human participants.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as NIH investing in the enabling technology needed for AUD medication discovery: scalable, quantitative model systems that respond predictably to alcohol and can be used to detect whether a compound meaningfully alters alcohol-related biological or functional outcomes. A competitive application would typically center on clear assay design, strong evidence of sensitivity to alcohol dose and treatment effects, solid plans for reproducibility and quality control, and a development path showing how the platform will be optimized into a practical HTS tool that can reliably support compound discovery for AUD.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Platform for Discovery of Medications to Treat Alcohol Use Disorder (R41/R42 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.273.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-12-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-04-09. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA AA 24 002

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