Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD) (UM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA AI 18 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA AI 18 001

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity titled "Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD) (UM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-AI-18-001) is a discretionary health research program that uses the cooperative agreement mechanism (UM1). The central aim is to establish one or more coordinated consortia made up of multidisciplinary research teams working in a tightly integrated way to speed up HIV vaccine development. The focus is specifically on antibody-mediated preventive HIV vaccines, with an emphasis on solving key immunogen design problems that have slowed progress in the field. In practice, the announcement is looking for applications that bring together complementary expertise and use iterative, learning-driven approaches where design, testing, analysis, and redesign inform one another in repeated cycles, rather than isolated, one-off projects.

A defining feature of this opportunity is the consortium model itself. NIH is signaling that the work should be organized as a coordinated team effort, not a collection of loosely related subprojects. The expectation is that investigators will combine multiple disciplines (for example, immunology, virology, protein engineering, structural biology, computational design, and vaccine delivery approaches) to attack immunogen design roadblocks in a systematic way. The intent is to create a structured environment where different scientific components feed into each other quickly, allowing the consortium to refine vaccine concepts and candidate immunogens efficiently as new data emerges.

The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which generally means NIH expects substantial programmatic involvement during the project period compared with a standard research grant. Applicants should typically anticipate more active coordination with NIH staff around milestones, integration across consortium components, and overall strategic direction, consistent with how cooperative agreements are commonly managed. The funding activity aligns with NIH infectious disease priorities and is listed under CFDA number 93.855.

The opportunity explicitly states "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applicants should not propose clinical trials under this FOA. The work is therefore oriented toward preclinical, translational, and enabling research activities that support vaccine discovery and development without moving into human efficacy or interventional clinical trial testing within this award. Applicants would be expected to structure their plans accordingly, focusing on immunogen design and related experimental systems rather than clinical trial execution.

Eligibility is broad across many types of organizations. 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; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American 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; small businesses; and other entities. The announcement also calls out additional categories of eligible applicants such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), eligible federal agencies, faith-based or community-based organizations, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Indian/Native American tribal governments other than federally recognized, regional organizations, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and U.S. territories or possessions.

At the same time, foreign eligibility is restricted in a specific way. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply as applicants. However, foreign components are allowed as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, which typically means a U.S. applicant organization can include certain foreign activities or collaborations when they are well-justified and meet NIH policy requirements, even though a foreign institution cannot be the primary applicant.

Key administrative details provided include the original closing date of June 28, 2018, and the FOA creation date of February 7, 2018. The listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the supplied data excerpt. Overall, the opportunity is designed to fund highly coordinated, multi-investigator consortia that can move rapidly through iterative cycles of immunogen design and evaluation to overcome major scientific barriers standing between current knowledge and an effective, safe antibody-based preventive HIV vaccine.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD) (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): 93.855.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-02-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-06-28. (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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