Limited Competition for the Continuation of Cure Glomerulonephropathy (CureGN) Participating Clinical Centers (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 18 503

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 18 503

This funding opportunity, RFA-DK-18-503, is a limited competition cooperative agreement (U01; clinical trial not allowed) from the National Institutes of Health focused on continuing the Cure Glomerulonephropathy (CureGN) Network through ongoing support of its Participating Clinical Centers (PCCs). CureGN is a large, multicenter observational cohort study designed to improve care for people with glomerular diseases by tracking how these conditions behave over time in real-world clinical settings. Rather than testing an intervention, the study emphasizes structured long-term observation, consistent data capture, and the integration of clinical information with pathology and biospecimens so researchers can better understand disease course, identify meaningful subtypes, and uncover new targets for treatment.

CureGN was launched in 2013 and is organized around four multi-site PCCs working in partnership with a central Data Coordinating Center (DCC). At the time of this announcement, the network had enrolled nearly 2,200 of the 2,400 planned participants and had been following them through yearly in-person clinic visits along with interim telephone contacts. The core intent of this continuation is not to start a new cohort, but to sustain and strengthen follow-up of participants who are already enrolled, preserving the value of the longitudinal dataset and ensuring that outcomes across multiple years can be analyzed with confidence.

The PCCs supported under this announcement are expected to maintain high-quality follow-up and prioritize participant retention, since long-term observational studies depend heavily on minimizing drop-out and missing data. A major emphasis is improving retention strategies and expanding practical ways for participants to stay involved even when in-person visits are difficult. This includes developing and refining remote or virtual participation approaches that still meet study requirements for completeness and accuracy. The announcement highlights the need for robust data collection centered on clinical assessment of disease activity and outcomes, meaning PCCs are expected to gather standardized measures that reflect both disease severity and how it changes over time, while also capturing clinically important endpoints.

In addition to clinical follow-up and data integrity, the PCCs have a defined scientific role in pathology standardization across the network. They are expected to participate in the development and validation of a study-wide, semi-quantitative method for assessing histopathologic lesions. In practice, this points to a coordinated effort to harmonize how kidney biopsy findings and lesion severity are graded across sites, improving comparability between centers and enabling stronger analyses that link pathology patterns to clinical trajectories and outcomes.

The broader scientific promise behind the continuation is that CureGN can illuminate predictors of disease progression and response patterns by focusing on features unique to glomerulonephropathy and by capturing outcomes that reflect the full patient experience. The opportunity description emphasizes carefully curated clinical and biochemical data, which signals an expectation that the network will continue producing a high-quality, analysis-ready dataset. With enough follow-up time and consistent measurements, the study is positioned to reveal previously hidden relationships among clinical course, underlying biology, and disease subtypes, and to point toward novel therapeutic targets even though the study itself does not test treatments.

Operationally, this PCC-focused announcement is paired with a separate funding opportunity for the Data Coordinating Center. While the DCC is not funded under this specific FOA, the description clarifies its central role in the network, including leadership in study organization, study design and implementation, overall project management, data management and analysis, and biosample management. That division of labor matters because PCC applicants are expected to function as part of a coordinated consortium where the DCC provides shared infrastructure and governance, and the PCCs execute participant-facing activities and site-level scientific contributions.

Key administrative details included in the source information are that the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding using a cooperative agreement mechanism, reflecting substantial NIH involvement in coordination and stewardship of the program. The activity category is health (CFDA 93.847). Eligible applicants listed include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, with additional eligibility details referenced in the full announcement. The original closing date was November 21, 2018, the award ceiling was $750,000, and the funding opportunity was created on August 30, 2018.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition for the Continuation of Cure Glomerulonephropathy (CureGN) Participating Clinical Centers (U01 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): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-08-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-11-21. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $750,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

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