CFAR Traditional Developmental Award (TDA) RFP

The Center For AIDS Research (CFAR) Developmental Core is soliciting domestic proposals for research on any HIV-related topic in alignment with NIH funding priorities. Small grants for up to four months (ending NO LATER than 5/31/26) are available to support emerging (new and early stage) HIV investigators or experienced investigators new to HIV research. Please note that we cannot fund clinical trials as defined by NIH. Due to the restricted time available for 2026 Awards, we strongly encourage submission of secondary data analysis proposals and other proposals with limited oversight needs.

Recipients of this Award will be well-positioned to incorporate pilot data from their proposed research question into a larger K, R21, or R01 NIH grant proposal. The success of the UNC CFAR is measured in large part by the number of subsequent NIH grants that our Developmental Awardees receive as PI (not co-I) while affiliated with the UNC CFAR. See the section on ELIGIBILITY below for more details. In addition to the generation of pilot data to enhance a future NIH grant application, Awardees are expected to produce at least one manuscript for publication from study data.

RFP SCHEDULE

• Obtain necessary Core reviews and letters of support to submit with application (see Application section, below)
• Application Due Date: Monday, November 10, 2025
• CFAR Scientific Review: November-December 2025
• Earliest Notification of Award: Friday, January 16, 2026

• Actual start date may be delayed if required approvals are delayed; see below.

• Period of Award: Funding expires on May 31, 2026, regardless of date of Award notification

Email application package as .pdf attachment to: cfar_rfp@med.unc.edu.

Start dates for funded Awards depend on timing of receipt of the following:

• Projects involving vertebrate animals require UNC IACUC, which may be obtained after Award notice
• Projects involving human subjects require UNC IRB approval, which may be obtained after Award notice

AWARD

Up to $50,000 for up to four months. Because funds release and study implementation is contingent on UNC IRB or IACUC (if needed), the funding will only be initiated once all necessary approvals are obtained and all forms are submitted to the CFAR Developmental Core and will ONLY be available through May 31, 2026. No cost extensions will not be possible. Awardees will have a strict deadline of two weeks from notification of Award to submit applications for approval to the UNC IRB/IACUC and all non-IRB forms to the Developmental Core.

 PI salary support is allowed for ESI applicants. The amount should be carefully considered and thoroughly justified and fall within the total budget limitations. As the application and amount of time that the applicant will need to devote to the proposed project is being developed, keep in mind that 10% LOE equals one half day a week, and 20% LOE equals one full day a week, and prepare the budget justification accordingly. Applicants are not required to request salary support and all justifications including salary support will be thoroughly reviewed.

ELIGIBILITY

• Applicants must meet one of the following criteria:
  • NIH-defined new or early stage investigators who have never received an NIH R01 or R01–equivalent (R23, R29, R37, DP1, DP2, DP5, RL1, R35-MIRA, RF1, and U01) award in HIV/AIDS
  • Established investigators new to HIV research (i.e., have received at least one non-HIV-related NIH R01 or R01-equivalent award)
• PI must be associated with the UNC CFAR. In the case of questions, investigators should contact the Developmental Core to determine eligibility before applying.
• Due to the aforementioned time constraints, secondary data analysis proposals are strongly encouraged in this RFA.
• New or early stage investigator applicants must be actively mentored by a CFAR-affiliated established investigator in the HIV field (i.e., someone with previous HIV-related independent R01-equivalent NIH funding). If it is a new mentoring relationship, the mentoring should begin during the writing of the application. This must be evident in the application itself, including appropriate letters of support.
• Established investigators who are new to the HIV field must be collaborating with a CFAR-affiliated established HIV investigator. This must be evident in the application itself, including appropriate letters of support.
• Applicants must have a terminal degree (e.g., PhD, MD, PharmD, etc.).
• Applicants with a current K award must have documented NIH pre-approval.
• Applicants must be eligible to serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) on National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded grants. Accordingly, any university-based applicant must be a faculty member.
• Please note: Awardees are expected to serve as PI or MPI on follow-up NIH grants! NIH does not consider follow-up NIH funding that goes to anyone *other* than the Developmental Awardee as PI an outcome of the Award.

Please contact the Developmental Core to discuss your eligibility if you have questions. In addition, reach out to us if you need help identifying mentors and/or collaborators.

LIMITATIONS

• Proposals for clinical research will not be considered
• Due to the time constraints caused by being in our grant cycle’s final year, no subawards will be allowed.
• Proposals with a foreign component will not be considered
• Proposals for research among vulnerable populations will not be considered
• Proposals with greater than minimal risk will not be considered
• Applicants on T32 grants are not eligible
• Established HIV researchers, i.e., investigators who have previously received HIV-related independent R01-equivalent NIH funding, are not eligible to apply
• Former CFAR Developmental Awardees may apply, however, they are unlikely to be funded again. Their applications will be judged in part by the success and outcomes of their previous Award. Previous Awardees should contact the Developmental Core before submitting a new application.

MENTOR REQUIREMENTS

The likelihood of a Developmental Awardee’s success increases substantially with the involvement of an available, engaged, and knowledgeable mentor. To be eligible to serve as a primary mentor, a researcher must have served as PI on an R01 or R01 equivalent grant and be affiliated with the UNC CFAR. The Developmental Core requires all ESI Awardees to have at least one mentor in an area that is relevant to the proposed Developmental research. Mentors are expected to have an active role in both the planning of the application and all stages of the Award’s implementation. The Awardee and mentor(s) will sign a contract after the Award notification in which they commit to meeting at least twice monthly, although they are strongly encouraged to meet weekly, to discuss the CFAR-funded research. Challenges encountered during the research should be discussed and response strategies developed with the mentor(s). All ESI Awardees will be required to complete an IDP to review with their primary CFAR mentor; the Developmental Core can provide one if needed. Therefore, a CFAR mentoring relationship is a serious commitment and pivotal to the Core’s provision of support to ESIs. There will be a mentorship orientation meeting for those whose mentees’ applications for CFAR funding are successful.

REVIEW CRITERIA

Proposals will be reviewed by senior investigators on the following criteria:

• Alignment with NIH HIV/AIDS Priority Areas
• Overall scientific merit
• Standard NIH criteria of Factor importance of research (including significance and innovation), approach (including rigor, feasibility, and inclusion), and expertise and resources (including investigator and environment)
• Specific and narrowly focused application with realistic goals
• Potential for generating future NIH funding
• Potential for drawing investigators from other fields into AIDS research
• Potential for developing new interactions between or among CFAR investigators
• Appropriateness of the budget and budget justification

Awardees will be notified in writing. All applicants will receive a written review of their proposals, regardless of funding decision.

Factor 1 – Importance of the Research

Significance:

• Evaluate the importance of the proposed research in the context of current scientific challenges and opportunities, either for advancing knowledge within the field, or more broadly. Assess whether the application addresses an important gap in knowledge in the field, would solve a critical problem, or create a valuable conceptual or technical advance.
• Evaluate the rationale for undertaking the study, the rigor of the scientific background for the work (e.g., prior literature and/or preliminary data) and whether the scientific background justifies the proposed study.

Innovation

• Evaluate the extent to which innovation influences the importance of undertaking the proposed research. Note that while technical or conceptual innovation can influence the importance of the proposed research, a project that is not applying novel concepts or approaches may be of critical importance for the field.
• Evaluate whether the proposed work applies novel concepts, methods or technologies or uses existing concepts, methods, technologies in novel ways, to enhance the overall impact of the project.

Factor 2 – Rigor and Feasibility

Approach:

• Evaluate the scientific quality of the proposed work.
• Evaluate the likelihood that compelling, reproducible findings will result (rigor) and assess whether the proposed studies can be done well and within the timeframes proposed (feasibility).Secondary data analysis proposals are strongly encouraged for this round of funding.

Rigor:

• Evaluate the potential to produce unbiased, reproducible, robust data.

• Evaluate the rigor of experimental design and whether appropriate controls are in place.
• Evaluate whether the sample size is sufficient and well-justified.
• Assess the quality of the plans for analysis, interpretation, and reporting of results.
• Evaluate whether the investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex or age, in the design, analysis, and reporting.
• For applications involving human subjects or vertebrate animals, also evaluate:
  • the rigor of the intervention or study manipulation (if applicable to the study design).
  • whether outcome variables are justified.
  • whether the results will be generalizable or, in the case of a rare disease/special group, relevant to the particular subgroup.
  • >whether the sample is appropriate and sufficiently diverse to address the proposed question(s).
• For applications involving human subjects, including clinical trials, assess the adequacy of inclusion plans as appropriate for the scientific goals of the research. Considerations of appropriateness may include disease/condition/behavior incidence, prevalence, or population burden, population representation, and/or current state of the science.

Feasibility:

• Evaluate whether the proposed approach is sound and achievable, including plans to address problems or new challenges that emerge in the work. For proposed studies in which feasibility may be less certain, evaluate whether the uncertainty is balanced by the potential for major advances.
• For applications involving human subjects, including clinical trials, evaluate the adequacy and feasibility of the plan to recruit and retain an appropriately diverse population of participants. Additionally, evaluate the likelihood of successfully achieving the proposed enrollment based on age, racial, ethnic, and sex categories.

 Inclusion
Inclusion of Women, Minorities, and Individuals across the Lifespan

Factor 3 – Expertise and Resources (scored as sufficient or insufficient only)
Investigator:

• Evaluate whether the investigator(s) have demonstrated background, training, and expertise, as appropriate for their career stage, to conduct the proposed work. For Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) applications, assess the quality of the leadership plan to facilitate coordination and collaboration.

Environment:

• Evaluate whether the institutional resources are appropriate to ensure the successful execution of the proposed work.

• Overall Impact
  Reviewers provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following review criteria and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed). An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact.

Potential for future related NIH funding:

• Is there a clear vision for how the proposed work will build toward specific independent research for the investigator that is aligned with NIH HIV funding priorities?

EXPECTED PROJECT OUTCOMES

• Peer-review publication(s)
• Independent NIH funding (e.g., K, R21, or R01 awards) directly related to the Developmental Award, with the Developmental Awardee serving as the NIH PI.
• Partway through their funding period, Developmental Awardees may be required to present long-term research plans related to their Developmental research at a forum to senior CFAR investigators. Resulting feedback and questions will then inform the implementation of their research, with the goal of stronger preliminary data and analysis in order to ultimately support a successful NIH funding application.

FUNDING PRIORITIES

Given that the CFAR will ultimately be judged on the success of its Awardees (defined in large part by NIH as independent NIH funding as PI while associated with the CFAR), Developmental proposals will be prioritized based on the alignment of proposals with NIH funding priorities.

APPLICATION

Applications should contain the following components and be submitted in .pdf format. Proposal must be single-spaced with at least ½” margins and written using 11 point Arial font.

1. The completed CFAR Small Grant Cover Page, which includes:
   • Applicant information
   • Mentor information
   • A project summary describing why this application is innovative and/or important

2. Project proposal including:
   • one page of Specific Aims
   • up to four pages of Research Strategy, including sections to address Significance, Innovation and Approach.

3. A separate References section (not included in four-page limit)

4. A separate page for acronyms used in the proposal is optional but highly encouraged

5. For new and early stage investigators, identification of a proposed mentor – a CFAR-affiliated established HIV researcher who has been PI on an NIH R01 or R01 equivalent grant – and explanation of the mentor’s role on the project, starting with during the application process. For established investigators new to HIV, a CFAR-affiliated established HIV investigator collaborator must similarly be included and described.

6. If application contains multiple PIs, a separate Project Leadership Plan, per NIH guidelines, must be included (not included in four-page limit)

7. A current NIH Biosketch for all key personnel
   • NIH biosketch sample, format, and instructions

8. Budget (“Detailed Budget for the Initial Budget Period”) on NIH 398 form page and Budget Justification. Applicants may request up to $50,000 (or $60,000 if applying on behalf of a CFAR SWG or RIG collaboration) in total direct costs for one year. Awardee salary is now allowed. See “AWARD” information above for more information.

Restrictions:

• • Subawards will not be allowed
  • No foreign component will be allowed, including co-authorship
  • Award funds may not be used to support conference travel or food/drinks
  • See Developmental FAQ for guidance concerning indirect costs

9. Separate Human Subjects section (not included in four-page limit)

10. Letter of support from the applicant’s proposed mentor(s), outlining the mentor’s proposed role in the project and connection to the applicant

11. Additional letters of support are strongly encouraged if applicable (e.g., to verify access to clinic populations, for collaborators, etc.)

12. All applications must include a separate document thoroughly explaining how the proposed work aligns with the NIH funding priorities. This document should include a plan outlining how the proposed work will lead to NIH funding, a timeline for seeking such funding, the NIH Institute or Center from which they anticipate seeking funding, and the type of grant they plan to pursue (maximum of one page, not part of four-page limit).

13. If the application overlaps with or duplicates any aspects of a pending NIH proposal submitted by the PI, include a copy of the Specific Aims page for the proposal(s) and anticipated review dates

14. A cover letter may be submitted if desired

15. ALL applications involving human subjects will be required to have an accompanying letter from the CFAR Regulatory Office documenting a discussion of the project’s ethics and human subject involvement. To schedule a meeting with our regulatory consultants, you must contact them via email no later than two weeks before the application deadline. This requirement applies to ALL applicants. NIH requires that the UNC IRB be involved in some way in all CFAR-funded research, even if it is just via an Interagency Authorization Agreement (IAA). The Regulatory Office will help ensure that this requirement is met.

16. NEW AND EARLY STAGE INVESTIGATORS ONLY: Required letters of support resulting from specific consultations are listed below. These consultations should be held in the later stages of application process. Before arranging them, please ensure that your mentor agrees that your proposal is ready for this type of review.

• • If you plan to use qualitative methods, the UNC CFAR Social and Behavioral Sciences Core will provide you with a free Qualitative Methods Consultation to review your proposal. This is strongly encouraged, as the consultation and resources the CFAR can provide will strengthen your application. To schedule your free consultation, you must submit a service request (directions at the bottom of the RFA) no later than two weeks before the application deadline. If you choose not to submit a letter of support from the Core for an application using qualitative methods, include a paragraph explaining that choice (not included in the four-page limit).
  • If you plan to use quantitative methods, the CFAR Biostatistics Core will provide you with a free consultation to review your proposal’s methodology. A letter documenting this pre-submission statistical/informatics review will be required of all applications with quantitative methods. To schedule your free consultation, you must submit a service request (directions at the bottom of the RFA) no later than two weeks before the application deadline.

 Projects Involving Clinical Trials: Projects involving clinical research (e.g., observational studies or sub-studies using existing data from an ongoing clinical trial) may be funded by the CFAR.

Unfortunately, CFARs are unable to fund clinical trials. The NIH definition of a clinical trial is very broad. Some investigators conducting human subjects research may not be aware that NIH considers their study to be a clinical trial. For guidance, click here. Double-check whether your plan is considered a clinical trial before submitting a proposal.

Applicants considering submission of proposals that might be considered clinical trials are also strongly encouraged to seek advice from the Developmental Core before submitting a proposal.

Additional notes:

• Involvement of other UNC CFAR Cores is strongly encouraged whenever applicable.
• NIH guidance for a discussion of Rigor and Reproducibility can be found here.
• NIH provides excellent general guidance on grant-writing.
• Here’s more help from NIH in avoiding common grant–writing mistakes.
• Contact the Developmental Core if you would like us to help you seek input or assistance from a CFAR Core Director.

CONDITIONS OF AWARD

• CFAR Developmental Core Awards provide funding for up to a one-year term, ending no later than May 31, 2026, for this funding round. A no-cost extension will not be possible and all remaining funds will be rescinded at that time. Funds may not be used on other research or activities/resources unrelated to the approved project.
• ESI Awardees will be required to complete an IDP to review with their primary CFAR mentor. An IDP will be provided if needed.
• PIs will submit a progress report to the Dev Core in late winter/early spring for required submission to the NIH
• PIs may be asked to present their research progress and plans for follow up funding to UNC CFAR leadership.
• All publications and manuscripts derived from CFAR funding must:
  • Be linked to the UNC CFAR grant by our grant number during the publication process
  • Obtain a PMCID (which is different from a PMID!) upon publication. The PMCID process is the PI’s responsibility, regardless of whether the journal provides this service.
  • Ideally, acknowledge UNC CFAR support by grant number (P30AI50410) in the Acknowledgements or Funding section of the text
• Please note: prior to funding, PI must forward a copy of all relevant Institutional Biohazard, Animal Care and IRB approvals to the CFAR Developmental Core. As noted above, Awardees will have a deadline of two weeks from notification of Award to submit applications to their IRB(s) and all non-IRB forms to the Developmental Core. If the documents have not been submitted within two weeks of the Award notification, the Core reserves the right to rescind all Developmental funding to that Awardee.

OTHER CFAR SERVICES

Besides direct funding, the UNC CFAR has numerous Cores (Advanced Technology Laboratory or ATLab Core; Clinical Pharmacology/Analytical Chemistry or CPAC Core; Clinical Core, Social, Behavioral, & Implementation Sciences Research Core or SBIS Core; Global Health Core; and Biostatistics Core) that can assist with HIV-related research projects. They have the ability to do assays (ATLab and CPAC Cores), assist with consultation in developing questionnaires (Clinical and SBIS Cores), and review any grants you plan to submit to outside agencies. Descriptions of these services can be found on the UNC CFAR website, where you can also submit a request for those services on individual Core pages.

All ESIs who are eligible to apply for a CFAR Award of any kind are also eligible for membership in the CFAR Developmental Cohort, and ESI Awardees automatically become members. Attendance at the monthly remote or hybrid Cohort meetings is mandatory for ESI Developmental Awardees. Contact the Core Manager for more information or to join the Dev Cohort.

SUBMITTING CFAR SERVICE REQUESTS FOR PRESUBMISSION REVIEWS

Step 1: Go to the CFAR Request a Service webpage: https://www.med.unc.edu/cfar/request-a-service/

Step 2: Select Social, Behavioral, & Implementation Science Core.

Step 3: Complete the rest of the online form. Please be sure to include the proposed title for your Developmental Award application.

For additional information, please contact the Developmental Core at cfardevcore@med.unc.edu. All questions are welcomed.