Limited Competition: Research Resource for the National Swine Resource and Research Center (U42 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 21 356

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 21 356

This opportunity, titled "Limited Competition: Research Resource for the National Swine Resource and Research Center (U42 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-21-356), is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement intended to continue support for the National Swine Resource and Research Center (NSRRC). The NSRRC is positioned as a national, centralized infrastructure resource that helps the biomedical research community access and use swine as models of human health and disease. Rather than funding a traditional hypothesis-driven research project, this FOA focuses on sustaining a shared research resource that provides specialized capabilities, services, and expertise that individual labs generally cannot maintain on their own.

The core purpose of the NSRRC under this FOA is to serve as a hub for producing genetically modified swine in response to community needs. This includes developing and maintaining technologies and workflows required to generate engineered pig models, which are valuable in translational research because of their physiological and anatomical similarities to humans in areas such as cardiovascular function, metabolism, dermatology, surgical studies, imaging, and device testing. Alongside model creation, the center is expected to support cryopreservation of genetic stocks so that important lines can be preserved long-term, recovered when needed, and protected against loss. The resource is also intended to handle procurement and distribution activities, meaning it helps researchers obtain animals, genetic lines, reagents, and related biological materials, and it provides mechanisms for disseminating these resources to qualified users.

A significant part of the NSRRC mission described in the announcement is enabling broader use of these animals by providing information and training. In practical terms, that typically means the center functions as an expert source on best practices for swine model use in biomedical research, offers guidance on husbandry and handling considerations, advises on model selection and experimental planning where appropriate for a resource center, and may provide training opportunities that help investigators and staff work effectively and responsibly with swine models. This emphasis reflects NIH's interest in ensuring that the resource is not only producing animals, but also building community capacity to use them correctly, reproducibly, and ethically.

The mechanism is a U42 cooperative agreement, which generally indicates substantial NIH involvement compared with a standard grant. Cooperative agreements often include active programmatic engagement from NIH staff, coordination on priorities, and ongoing stewardship to ensure the resource meets national needs and operates as a reliable shared infrastructure. The FOA explicitly states "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," which means the supported activities should not include clinical trials; the work is centered on resource development, maintenance, and distribution rather than enrolling human participants into intervention studies.

Eligibility in the provided summary notes small businesses as eligible applicants, and the FOA is described as a limited competition, which typically means only certain organizations or a narrow set of qualified applicants are allowed to apply, often because the program supports a unique national center and NIH wants continuity and demonstrated capability. The announcement also includes strict restrictions on foreign involvement: non-U.S. entities (foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed. In effect, the work must be proposed and carried out entirely within allowable U.S.-based organizational structures, without foreign subcomponents that would meet NIH's definition of a foreign component.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity falls under the NIH, uses the discretionary funding category, and is mapped to multiple CFDA numbers (93.233, 93.351, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840, 93.855), reflecting that multiple NIH institutes or program areas may be involved or that the program aligns with several health-related assistance listings. The original closing date listed is 2022-09-25, and the FOA was created on 2021-12-03. The provided source data does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards, so applicants would need to consult the full funding announcement for budget expectations, scope, review criteria, and any special submission requirements tied to the limited competition structure.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as NIH funding to keep a national swine model resource operating at a high level: generating and preserving genetically engineered swine lines, distributing animals and related materials, and serving as a training and information center so that investigators can use these models to study human disease and develop interventions, tools, and technologies, while staying within NIH rules that exclude clinical trials and prohibit foreign components.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Research Resource for the National Swine Resource and Research Center (U42 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): 93.233, 93.351, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840, 93.855.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-12-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-09-25. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for PAR 21 356

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