The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite applications proposing new tests, animal models, techniques, etc. to advance research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its related dementias (ADRD) that need additional preliminary data with broader dissemination to establish them for more general use in this research field. The priority topics will be announced through a series of Notices published subsequent to this FOA.Section I. Funding Opportunity Description
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, degenerative disorder of the brain and is the most common form of dementia of the aging. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Prominent behavioral manifestations of AD include memory impairments and decline in other cognitive domains. Currently, more than 6 million Americans, most of them age 65 or older live with AD, and it is projected that the number of new cases of AD will double by 2025. AD is clearly becoming a national health crisis affecting diverse populations of Americans across all regions of the country, and the total annual payments of health care for people living with AD are projected to total more than $1 trillion in 2050. In addition, disparities in AD have been noted for some racial/ethnic groups and other under-resourced and/or underserved populations (e.g. rural, sexual gender minority, etc.). In response to this looming public health crisis, the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) was signed into law in 2011. The primary research goal of the NAPA is to prevent the onset of and develop effective treatments for AD by 2025. As part of the strategic planning process to implement NAPA, NIH AD Research Summits were held in 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2021 and identified research priorities and strategies needed to accelerate basic research and the development of effective therapies. Similarly, Dementia Care Research Summits were held in 2017 and 2020, and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementia (ADRD) Summits were held in 2013, 2016, and 2019. A FY 2023 Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia bypass budget with milestones was published in 2021 to establish research and funding priorities. This funding opportunity announcement was developed in response to the recommendations of the AD/ADRD Research Summits to support interdisciplinary research to understand the heterogeneity and multifactorial etiology of AD/ADRD.

Research Objectives

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications proposing research on current topics in Alzheimer's disease and its related dementias. Further information on the high-priority topics of interest will be announced through a series of Notices published subsequent to this FOA.

Applications proposing research on topics beyond those specified in the notices will not be prioritized for funding under this FOA. Investigators proposing applications on topics that are not high priority are encouraged to apply to the parent R01 announcement or to explore whether their topic would be appropriate for NIA's other AD-focused FOAs.

NIA supports a central resource to NIA staff and extramural investigators to facilitate/support the conduct and management of clinical research. This resource, the Clinical Research Operations Management System (CROMS), is a comprehensive data management system to support the business functions, management, and oversight responsibilities of NIA grants that support the conduct of clinical research with human subjects. It is the expectation by NIA that all successful applicants will interface, integrate, or adapt their information system(s) and processes to interact with existing and future components of the CROMS as necessary, including the use of a CROMS data templates as specified.