Data Sharing for Demographic Research Infrastructure Program (R24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA HD 20 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA HD 20 001

The Data Sharing for Demographic Research Infrastructure Program (R24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed), announced by the Department of Health and Human Services through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and specifically aligned with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), is a discretionary grant opportunity designed to strengthen and expand the infrastructure that enables data sharing in demographic and population research. The central goal is to increase the overall impact of research funded by NICHD within the scientific mission of the NICHD Population Dynamics Branch (PDB). Rather than funding new clinical or intervention studies, this program focuses on building and operating shared resources, tools, and systems that make existing NICHD-supported datasets easier to find, access, document, and reuse for rigorous secondary analysis by researchers beyond the original study teams.

At its core, the FOA supports the creation or enhancement of research infrastructure that improves how NICHD-funded demographic data are shared across the scientific community. This includes developing practical procedures and modern technologies that reduce common barriers to sharing data, such as inconsistent documentation, unclear governance, privacy and confidentiality constraints, and the absence of standardized processes for requesting and obtaining access. A major component is disseminating best practices in data sharing, meaning the funded project is expected to provide leadership and guidance on topics like data curation, metadata standards, responsible data stewardship, secure access models, and approaches that preserve participant confidentiality while still enabling meaningful research use.

A key deliverable emphasized in the announcement is a resource that catalogs NICHD-funded data available for secondary analysis. In practical terms, this suggests a centralized, organized, and searchable listing of datasets produced through NICHD grants that can be reused by other investigators. Such a catalog typically goes beyond a simple list and may include dataset descriptions, population and sampling details, time periods covered, key variables, documentation availability (codebooks, questionnaires, protocols), access conditions, data use agreements, and instructions for requesting access. By making NICHD-funded datasets more visible and navigable, the program is intended to encourage and accelerate secondary analyses, replication studies, methodological innovation, and cross-study comparisons, all of which can substantially extend the value of the original federal investment in data collection.

Another explicit purpose of the FOA is to promote secondary analysis of data collected through NICHD grants by research teams outside the original grantees. This reflects an emphasis on broad scientific reuse rather than limiting data utilization to the investigators who collected it. The infrastructure supported under this mechanism is therefore expected to lower entry barriers for external researchers, including those at different institutions or in different disciplines, who can bring new questions, methods, and perspectives to existing demographic data. The outcome NICHD is pushing toward is a more open and efficient research ecosystem where high-value datasets can generate multiple waves of discovery across topics relevant to population dynamics, family demography, fertility, migration, aging, health and mortality patterns, and related areas consistent with the PDB mission.

The funding mechanism is an R24 grant, which is typically used by NIH to support research-related resource development and infrastructure rather than hypothesis-driven research projects. The FOA is explicitly labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applications should not propose clinical trials, and the work should remain focused on data sharing infrastructure, tools, governance, dissemination, and enabling activities that expand data access and reuse. The opportunity was released under Funding Opportunity Number RFA-HD-20-001, with a creation date of September 12, 2019, and an original closing date of November 29, 2019. It anticipated making one award (ExpectedAwards: 1). The listed award ceiling is 0, which in many federal listings indicates that a fixed upper limit was not specified in that summary field rather than implying no cap in practice; actual budget expectations are typically detailed in the full FOA text.

Eligibility is broad and includes multiple types of organizations that could credibly host and operate a national-level data sharing resource. Eligible applicants include state, county, city, township, and 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 and other Native American tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other entities as clarified in the full eligibility language. This wide eligibility range suggests NICHD was open to proposals from universities, research institutes, data archives, consortia, and specialized organizations with demonstrated capacity in data stewardship, privacy protection, and community-facing dissemination.

In summary, this grant opportunity is best understood as an infrastructure investment aimed at making NICHD-funded demographic data easier to share responsibly and easier to reuse productively. It prioritizes systems and services that help the research community discover what data exist, understand how they were produced, access them under appropriate safeguards, and apply them to new scientific questions. The overall intended effect is to amplify the scientific return of NICHD’s demographic research portfolio by turning individual project datasets into a more connected and widely usable public research asset.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health in the health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Data Sharing for Demographic Research Infrastructure Program (R24 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): 93.865.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 12, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 29, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• 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 (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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