Pilot Projects to Enhance the Human Virome Program (R03, Clinical Trials Not Allowed) | RFA RM 25 006

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA RM 25 006

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering a small pilot grant opportunity titled "Pilot Projects to Enhance the Human Virome Program (R03, Clinical Trials Not Allowed)" under Funding Opportunity Number RFA-RM-25-006. This is a discretionary grant in the health funding area (CFDA 93.310) and is tied to the NIH Common Fund Human Virome Program (HVP). The larger HVP effort is focused on building a much more complete picture of the human virome, meaning the viruses that are associated with humans, and on creating practical tools, model systems, and methods that let researchers study how the virome varies from person to person, how it relates to host factors (like genetics, immune function, age, environment, and other biological characteristics), and how it may influence health and disease.

This specific notice of funding opportunity is designed to support small, targeted pilot projects that clearly extend and strengthen the goals of the HVP rather than duplicate what is already being done. A central theme is improving the usefulness and reliability of tools emerging from the HVP by validating them, refining them, or complementing them with additional capabilities. Projects are expected to take advantage of resources connected to the HVP, particularly human specimens collected from HVP-supported cohorts, and may also use animal samples when that helps with testing, benchmarking, or translating HVP tools and approaches. In practical terms, NIH is looking for short, focused studies that can show whether a method works as intended, identify limitations, improve performance, or make the tool easier to apply across different specimen types, populations, or research settings.

The types of projects encouraged by this R03 include several broad categories. One category is the validation and improvement of existing or newly developed HVP tools, models, and methods, with the goal of refining how the field detects, characterizes, and interprets virome data. Another category involves expanding existing cohorts and/or adding biospecimen sampling sites to improve virome characterization, which could mean increasing the diversity or representativeness of sampling, adding new collection contexts, or strengthening the ability to capture variation across people or environments. A third category emphasizes developing additional tools and methods for studying the human virome, which could include laboratory methods, computational approaches, reference materials, assay optimization, or analytic pipelines that make virome characterization more accurate, reproducible, or informative. A fourth category is focused on defining interactions between the human virome and the host, supporting early-stage work that clarifies how viruses may relate to host biology, including immune responses or other host features, without moving into clinical trial territory.

Collaboration is an explicit program goal. These pilot projects are intended to encourage interaction across the HVP community and to broaden participation in the consortium. At the same time, NIH is clear that proposed work should not overlap with ongoing HVP efforts, meaning applicants should position their projects as additive: filling a gap, testing something not yet validated, extending a tool into a new context, or solving a practical bottleneck that the main program has not already addressed.

The mechanism is the NIH R03 small grant, which is meant for narrowly scoped research that can be completed relatively quickly with limited resources. The award ceiling listed is $100,000, reinforcing that projects should be designed as pilots rather than full-scale research programs. Clinical trials are not allowed under this opportunity, so applications need to stay within observational, methods development, tool validation, preclinical, or similar non-trial activities, depending on NIH definitions.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations and governments. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education in those categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The notice also highlights additional eligible groups such as eligible federal agencies, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions.

Key administrative details provided include an original application closing date of 2025-11-24 and a creation date for the opportunity record of 2025-09-22. Overall, this R03 is best viewed as a focused entry point into the Human Virome Program ecosystem: it funds small projects that either make HVP tools more trustworthy and usable, broaden the specimens and settings where those tools can be applied, or generate new methods for virome study, all while strengthening collaboration and avoiding duplication of ongoing HVP-funded work.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Pilot Projects to Enhance the Human Virome Program (R03, Clinical Trials Not Allowed)" 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 2025-09-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-11-24. (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 $100,000.00 in funding.
• 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.

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