Multisite Clinical Center Common Fund Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures Program: Acute Peri-operative Pain or Musculoskeletal Trauma (UM1 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA RM 19 013

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 19 013

This funding opportunity, RFA-RM-19-013, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund cooperative agreement (UM1) focused on understanding why some people recover normally after an acute pain event while others go on to develop chronic pain. The core goal is to support a single Multisite Clinical Center that can recruit and follow a large group of patients over time and perform multimodal, longitudinal assessments after one of two qualifying acute pain triggers: either (1) acute musculoskeletal trauma (such as an injury that produces significant short-term pain) or (2) acute peri-operative pain (pain in the context of surgery). By tracking patients from the acute stage forward, the study is designed to identify biosignatures associated with resilience (returning to baseline without persistent pain) and/or the biological and clinical signatures that predict or explain a transition from acute pain to chronic pain.

The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which typically means the NIH expects to be actively involved in the project’s oversight and coordination rather than operating strictly as a hands-off funder. The “Clinical Trial Optional” designation indicates that applicants may propose work that includes a clinical trial component, but it is not mandatory for the application. The activity category is health, and the program is associated with CFDA number 93.310. The FOA’s emphasis on “multisite” and “large cohort” signals that NIH is looking for an organization (or a lead organization coordinating multiple sites) that can reliably enroll participants across locations, apply consistent protocols, and maintain high-quality follow-up and data capture over time.

From an operational standpoint, the Multisite Clinical Center is expected to do more than basic recruitment. It must be capable of implementing standardized enrollment procedures and conducting “multimodal” assessments, meaning multiple types of measures rather than a single test or questionnaire. Although the FOA text here does not list every required modality, the intent of the Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures Program is generally to integrate clinical outcomes with biological, behavioral, and potentially imaging, sensory, or other physiological measures collected at multiple time points. The longitudinal design is central: the center must assess participants repeatedly after the acute event to map trajectories and identify patterns that distinguish recovery from chronicity. The deliverable is not simply a descriptive dataset, but evidence strong enough to define biosignatures that can be used to understand mechanisms, stratify risk, and inform future interventions.

Eligibility is broad across U.S.-based entities, reflecting NIH’s typical openness to academic, nonprofit, government, and industry applicants who can carry out complex clinical research. Eligible applicants include state, county, city, township, and special district governments; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education institutions); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and other organizations that meet NIH eligibility rules. The FOA explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant types such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), as well as faith-based and community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. This breadth suggests NIH is encouraging participation from a wide range of institutions, including those that serve underrepresented or specific community populations, as long as they can meet the scientific and operational demands of a multisite longitudinal pain study.

At the same time, foreign involvement is clearly restricted. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply. Non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible, and foreign components (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed. In practical terms, the research infrastructure, enrollment sites, and project components must be U.S.-based, and the project cannot offload any defined “foreign component” of the work to institutions or activities outside the United States.

Key administrative details included in the listing are that the funding opportunity was created on August 29, 2019, with an original closing date of December 27, 2019. The listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided excerpt, which sometimes happens in summarized databases when those values are not populated or vary by final NIH decisions. The sponsoring agency is the National Institutes of Health, and the instrument type is a cooperative agreement, reinforcing that applicants should be prepared for substantial coordination, adherence to program-level standards, and collaborative engagement that is typical of NIH Common Fund initiatives.

In short, this FOA is aimed at building a highly organized, multisite, U.S.-based clinical research effort capable of enrolling a large cohort soon after an acute pain precipitating event (trauma or surgery), following participants over time with multiple complementary assessment methods, and producing robust biosignatures that clarify who is likely to recover versus who is likely to develop chronic pain and why.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Multisite Clinical Center Common Fund Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures Program: Acute Peri-operative Pain or Musculoskeletal Trauma (UM1 Clinical Trial Optional)" 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 2019-08-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-12-27. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA RM 19 013

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