Imaging the Persistent HIV Reservoir (R01) | PA 17 305

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 17 305

The Imaging the Persistent HIV Reservoir (R01) funding opportunity (PA 17 305) is a discretionary National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant designed to push forward imaging technologies that can find, measure, and better explain where HIV persists in the body despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). The central problem this FOA targets is that, even when ART suppresses virus in the blood to undetectable levels, HIV can remain in long-lived cellular and tissue-based reservoirs. Those reservoirs are difficult to locate and quantify with standard clinical tests, which makes it harder to evaluate cure-oriented strategies or reservoir-reducing interventions. This opportunity is aimed at supporting research that develops or refines imaging approaches capable of identifying and characterizing these persistent reservoirs in people on suppressive ART, and then using those approaches to quantify reservoir size and features as patients undergo therapeutic interventions.

A key emphasis of the FOA is method development and application: creating imaging tools that can detect HIV reservoirs with enough sensitivity and specificity to be meaningful in vivo, and using them to describe the nature of the reservoir (for example, distribution across tissues, relative burden, or changes over time). The announcement also highlights the need to quantify how reservoirs respond to interventions, which positions imaging not only as a discovery tool but also as a way to measure treatment impact in clinical research. In practice, this can include imaging strategies intended to visualize infected cells or infected tissue compartments, track biological signals associated with persistent infection, or otherwise provide a measurable readout of reservoir presence and dynamics in the context of suppressive ART and experimental therapies.

The funding mechanism is an R01 research project grant, which typically supports substantial, multi-year investigator-initiated research programs. The activity areas listed for the opportunity fall under education and health, and the associated CFDA numbers include 93.242, 93.279, 93.855, and 93.856, reflecting NIH programmatic areas that can cover HIV/AIDS, infectious disease research, and related biomedical domains. The opportunity was created on 2017-06-06, and the original closing date listed in the provided source data is 2020-05-07. The listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the excerpted fields, so applicants would typically rely on the full FOA text and NIH Institute/Center guidance for budget expectations, project period norms, and program priorities.

Eligibility is broad and includes a wide range of U.S. organizations and certain non-U.S. entities. 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 and tribal governments that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The FOA also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant types, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, regional organizations, and non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities/foreign organizations. This broad eligibility aligns with the interdisciplinary nature of imaging and HIV reservoir research, which often spans academic biomedical research, clinical centers, imaging science, community-engaged research settings, and international collaborations.

Overall, the opportunity is focused on enabling the next generation of HIV reservoir imaging capabilities, with the practical goal of making the hidden, persistent reservoir measurable in living patients on ART and making it possible to evaluate whether therapeutic interventions are genuinely shrinking or altering that reservoir. This kind of work supports the larger HIV cure research agenda by improving the tools needed to see where HIV remains, how much remains, and how it changes in response to new treatment strategies.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Imaging the Persistent HIV Reservoir (R01)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242, 93.279, 93.855, 93.856.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-06-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-05-07. (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 PA 17 305

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