Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3 Africa): Collaborative Centers (U54) | RFA RM 16 016

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 16 016

The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Collaborative Centers (U54) funding opportunity (RFA-RM-16-016) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative backed by the NIH Common Fund and participating NIH Institutes and Centers. It uses a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning NIH is expected to have an active role in coordination and oversight as the work moves forward, rather than operating as a hands-off grant. The purpose is to strengthen and expand high-impact genomics and health research capacity on the African continent by supporting major multi-institution collaborations led by African institutions.

At its core, this opportunity funds the creation of H3Africa Collaborative Centers made up of multiple research projects that are intentionally designed to function as a single, coordinated program. Each Center is expected to include roughly three to five collaborating research projects spread across at least three African institutions, working together as a formal partnership. The emphasis is on collaboration that creates added value, where the combined effort can deliver scientific outcomes, datasets, infrastructure, or expertise that individual projects could not realistically achieve alone. In practice, this points to integrated research plans with shared governance, harmonized protocols, joint training approaches, common data standards, and coordinated analysis strategies.

Scientifically, the Centers are expected to apply state-of-the-art genomics approaches to investigate how genetic factors and environmental exposures contribute to health conditions and diseases that are especially relevant to African populations. The FOA is framed around understanding both heredity and broader determinants of health, so competitive programs would typically integrate genomic data with clinical, epidemiological, and environmental or lifestyle information. The diseases or conditions of interest are not limited to a single area in the description, but they must be clearly important to African communities and public health priorities, and the genomics component should be modern, rigorous, and appropriate for the questions being asked.

Eligibility is specifically focused on foreign institutions located in African countries. Non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) are eligible to apply, while non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to serve as the applicant organization. That said, foreign components (as NIH defines them in its Grants Policy Statement) are allowed, which generally means collaborations can include additional partners outside the primary applicant structure as long as they fit NIH policy and the FOA requirements. The intent is clearly to keep leadership and primary institutional ownership rooted in Africa, while still permitting appropriate international collaboration where it strengthens the science and capacity building.

From the program administration details provided, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding within the health area (CFDA 93.310). The original closing date listed is November 15, 2016, with an anticipated number of awards of about six. An award ceiling is not specified in the provided text, which usually means applicants would need to rely on the FOA’s full budget guidance (not included here) to understand limits and expectations for scale. The opportunity was created on August 8, 2016, reflecting a time-limited call meant to assemble a cohort of Centers working under the broader H3Africa umbrella.

Overall, this FOA is aimed at building durable, networked research programs led by African institutions that can deliver meaningful genomics-driven insights into diseases affecting African populations, while also reinforcing collaborative infrastructure and scientific capacity across multiple institutions rather than concentrating resources in a single site.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3 Africa): Collaborative Centers (U54)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.310.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-08-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-11-15. (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 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for RFA RM 16 016

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