This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites applications for a U54 Specialized Center (henceforth: Consortium) to provide resources, expertise, and coordination to advance innovative, high-quality research on palliative care for those with serious illness across the lifespan. This research infrastructure will encompass Alzheimers disease and Alzheimers disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD), cancer, and other serious illnesses and populations relevant to the partnering Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs). NIH currently funds many palliative care research projects across the ICOs, and there is a need for a structure to leverage synergies, coordinate efforts, develop the scientific workforce, and address remaining gaps in the field. The goals of this initiative include generating new scientific knowledge, in part through supporting pilot and exploratory studies; fostering development of early- and mid-career palliative care investigators; serving as a national platform to provide research resources and facilitate high-quality palliative care research; engaging healthcare systems and community-based organizations as research partners and settings for palliative care research; and disseminating research findings, best practices, data, and other impactful resources to the palliative care research and clinical communities. An important focus of the Consortiums work will be on facilitating research to understand and address disparities in access, quality, and use of palliative care services for health disparities populations or in underserved areas.