Limited Competition: Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) (U10 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA AA 24 003

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA AA 24 003

The Limited Competition: Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) (U10 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) funding opportunity (RFA-AA-24-003) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement solicitation designed specifically for investigators who are already supported under the existing COGA study. Because it is a limited competition, it is not an open call for new, unrelated applicants; it is intended to continue and extend an ongoing, established research effort focused on alcohol use disorder (AUD). The funding mechanism is a U10 cooperative agreement, which typically means NIH will have substantial programmatic involvement in the project’s direction, coordination, and oversight compared with a standard research grant, while still leaving scientific leadership with the awardee.

The central purpose of COGA under this NOFO is to identify genetic variants that influence susceptibility to developing AUD. In practical terms, the work supports continued discovery and characterization of genetic contributions to risk for AUD, while also pushing beyond single-variant findings toward a deeper understanding of how multiple genetic factors interact with behavioral traits and environmental exposures. A key emphasis is the heterogeneity of AUD, meaning that the program recognizes AUD is not a single uniform condition and that different constellations of genetic and phenotypic features can lead to different clinical trajectories, levels of severity, comorbidities, and outcomes.

The goals highlighted in the announcement focus on advancing understanding of the complex relationships between genotypes and phenotypes that contribute to AUD. This includes continued refinement of phenotype definitions (for example, differentiating patterns of alcohol involvement, dependence-related features, or co-occurring psychiatric and behavioral characteristics) and linking those phenotypes to underlying genetic architecture. The NOFO also stresses integrating analysis of multiple data sources, which signals an expectation for coordinated use of diverse datasets that may include genetic and genomic data alongside clinical, behavioral, and environmental measures collected within the COGA framework. Another explicit priority is generating mechanistic hypotheses, meaning the program aims not only to detect statistical genetic associations but also to use those findings to propose and support plausible biological and behavioral pathways explaining how genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors contribute to developing AUD or, importantly, resilience against it.

This opportunity explicitly does not allow clinical trials, which narrows the scope to observational, analytic, and hypothesis-generating work rather than interventional studies that assign participants to treatments or prevention strategies. Applicants should therefore frame proposed activities around continued data collection and harmonization (if applicable within the ongoing study), advanced statistical genetics and multi-omics integration (where relevant), and analytic approaches that connect genetic findings to measurable behavioral and environmental influences, without crossing into clinical trial territory.

Eligibility is constrained in multiple ways. The most important constraint is that the solicitation is for investigators currently supported by the COGA study, reflecting the limited-competition nature of the NOFO. In addition, foreign participation is restricted: non-U.S. (non-domestic) entities are not eligible to apply, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed. The provided source data also lists eligible applicants as small businesses, although the limited-competition language still indicates the applicant pool is effectively confined to the existing COGA-supported investigators and associated eligible organizations.

Administrative details in the source information indicate the agency is NIH, the opportunity category is discretionary, and the activity falls under health-related research with CFDA numbers 93.273 and 93.307. The original closing date is listed as April 26, 2024, and the posting (creation) date is February 14, 2024. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided data, suggesting applicants would need to consult the full NOFO text for budget guidance, project period expectations, and the precise structure of cooperative agreement responsibilities and coordination requirements. Overall, the opportunity is best understood as NIH support to sustain and further develop the long-running COGA infrastructure and scientific output, with a strong focus on multi-factor, multi-data-stream explanations for AUD risk and resilience grounded in genetics and related phenotypes.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) (U10 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): 93.273, 93.307.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-02-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-04-26. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA AA 24 003

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