RFA-OD-20-016 Emergency Awards: RADx-RAD Multimodal COVID-19 surveillance methods for high risk clustered populations (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

NIH is issuing this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) in response to the declared public health emergency issued by the Secretary, HHS, for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This emergency FOA provides an expedited funding mechanism as part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Radical (RADx-rad) initiative.

This FOA invites applications to pursue development and validation studies of COVID-19 surveillance methods, not based or focused on direct viral testing of individuals, in settings and institutions, including residential, with a high density of individuals who are together for prolonged periods of time. There are numerous promising technologies which could allow for multimodal surveillance inputs. However, these technologies are often not interoperable, not optimized for integration to increase robustness and not tested for general applicability to public health or for the specific need of high-risk population surveillance. Applications are invited that translate a combination of digital surveillance modalities into platforms that can assist the professional staff of high-risk facilities in making clinically meaningful care recommendations for patients at risk of COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses. Projects proposed may use strategies that incorporate ideas and approaches from multiple disciplines, as appropriate.

The funding for this initiative is provided form the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, 2020.