Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV (SCORCH) Program: Data Coordination, Analysis, and Scientific Outreach (UM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DA 19 038

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DA 19 038

The Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV (SCORCH) Program: Data Coordination, Analysis, and Scientific Outreach (UM1; Clinical Trial Not Allowed) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) cooperative agreement funding opportunity (RFA-DA-19-038) designed to create a central hub for organizing, harmonizing, analyzing, and broadly sharing research data generated by companion SCORCH awards. In particular, it is paired with RFA-DA-19-037, which focuses on generating single-cell datasets from one or more brain regions relevant to opioid use disorder (OUD) and persistent HIV infection. This UM1 opportunity does not fund clinical trials; instead, it supports the infrastructure and scientific leadership needed to make the resulting datasets maximally useful to the research community.

At the core of the opportunity is the creation of a data coordination, analysis, and outreach center that will make NIDA-funded single-cell data and other molecular data related to HIV and substance use disorders (SUD) FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The practical goal is to ensure that datasets produced across different projects, platforms, and sites can be discovered easily, accessed appropriately, combined or compared reliably, and reused for new questions over time. Because single-cell methods can produce complex, high-dimensional outputs with many potential sources of technical variation, this center is meant to drive harmonization efforts so that data coming from different SCORCH projects can be integrated into coherent, standardized resources rather than remaining siloed.

A major emphasis is on enabling immediate and future data mining by the broader scientific community. In the near term, harmonized single-cell HIV/SUD datasets are expected to accelerate discovery of biomarkers and biological pathways linked to HIV persistence, opioid exposure, and OUD-relevant neurobiology. This includes identifying cell-type-specific responses to opioids, understanding how HIV-related processes may differ across neural and immune cell populations, and pinpointing candidate molecular targets that could inform therapeutic intervention strategies. Over the longer term, the program is explicitly designed to keep the datasets valuable as analytical methods improve. By investing in robust data organization, standards, and dissemination now, NIDA aims to maximize the return on the original investment in data generation, allowing future researchers to reanalyze the same resources using newer computational approaches, improved reference atlases, and emerging integrative methods.

The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which typically means NIDA expects substantial programmatic involvement and coordination between awardees and the agency. In practice, that implies the center will not just passively store data; it will actively coordinate with data-generating projects, help define common data elements and metadata expectations, support cross-project quality control and normalization strategies, and facilitate data release processes that align with FAIR principles and community standards. The "scientific outreach" component signals that the center is also responsible for helping the community actually use the data, which often includes documentation, user support, communication of updates, and efforts that lower barriers for outside investigators to discover and analyze the datasets.

This is a discretionary funding opportunity in the Education and Health activity category, tied to CFDA number 93.279, and it was released by NIH with an original closing date of May 8, 2019 (created April 1, 2019). Eligible applicants are broad and include many types of U.S. governmental entities (state, county, city/township, special district), independent school districts, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, tribal organizations (including those other than federally recognized governments), public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), excluding institutions of higher education when specified), for-profit organizations (other than small businesses), and small businesses. The opportunity also highlights additional eligible groups such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, and non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations).

Overall, RFA-DA-19-038 is best understood as the program’s integrative backbone: it supports the coordinated data ecosystem that turns multiple single-cell projects into a unified, reusable public resource for HIV and SUD research. The intended outcome is not only better organization and stewardship of complex single-cell datasets, but also faster scientific discovery now and sustained usefulness of these data as computational biology and data science continue to advance.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV (SCORCH) Program: Data Coordination, Analysis, and Scientific Outreach (UM1 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): 93.279.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-04-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-05-08. (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.

Apply for RFA DA 19 038

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