NIH Brain Development Cohorts (NBDC) Biospecimen Access (X01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 23 229

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 23 229

The NIH Brain Development Cohorts (NBDC) Biospecimen Access opportunity (PAR-23-229) is a resource-access grant mechanism designed to help researchers obtain biological samples from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. ABCD is a large, nationwide longitudinal project following more than 11,000 children who entered the study at ages 9 to 10 and are being tracked for about a decade. The core idea behind this opportunity is straightforward: ABCD has already collected an unusually rich set of biospecimens alongside extensive behavioral and neuroimaging data, and NIH is offering a formal pathway for outside investigators to request and use those stored samples to answer new research questions without launching a new clinical study.

The biospecimens available through ABCD span several domains of child and adolescent health and development. Investigators can request saliva (commonly used for hormone measurement and related endocrine questions), urine and hair (often used to assess substance use, substance exposure, and certain environmental exposures over different time windows), deciduous teeth (a valuable matrix for studying environmental exposures and toxicants over early developmental periods), and blood (supporting genetic analyses as well as metabolic and hematologic assays). Because these materials are linked to ABCD participants who also completed repeated assessments and brain imaging, the biospecimens can be used to explore relationships between biology, brain development, behavior, mental health, environmental context, and risk or resilience trajectories across adolescence.

This is an X01 mechanism and is labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," which signals that the award is intended for access to an existing resource rather than to run an interventional or prospective clinical trial. In practice, applicants should be proposing analyses that rely on already collected ABCD biospecimens (and associated ABCD data, where appropriate) rather than recruiting participants, delivering an intervention, or altering clinical care. The value of the program is that it reduces the burden and cost of biospecimen collection and gives researchers a chance to test hypotheses with well-characterized samples from a large, diverse U.S. cohort.

The administering agency is the National Institutes of Health, and the opportunity is connected to the NBDC Biospecimen Access Program information hosted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Additional background on the cohort and its measures is available through the ABCD Study website (abcdstudy.org), and NIH also points applicants to the NIDA funding opportunities page describing the biospecimen access program. The broad scope of the study and the specimen types means proposed projects can range from substance exposure and related health outcomes to hormones and puberty, environmental exposures, genetics, and multi-omics or biomarker work, so long as the work fits within the access-and-analysis purpose of the mechanism.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S. organizations and governments, such as state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses; and other entities. The announcement also explicitly notes additional eligible applicant categories, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, AANAPISI institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. (foreign) organizations. That wide eligibility is meant to encourage broad scientific use of the ABCD biospecimen resource across sectors and disciplines.

Key administrative details provided include the opportunity category (discretionary), the funding instrument type (grant), and activity areas spanning education, environment, and health. The CFDA/assistance listing numbers associated with the announcement include 93.113, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.307, 93.313, and 93.399. The posting date (creation date) is August 11, 2023, and the listed closing date is May 5, 2026. The source excerpt does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards, which is common for access mechanisms where costs and capacity can depend on specimen availability, handling requirements, and approved requests.

Overall, this opportunity is best read as a gateway to high-value, hard-to-replicate biospecimen materials from a landmark developmental cohort. Successful applications will typically make a clear case that the proposed analyses require ABCD samples specifically, describe how the biospecimens will be used to answer well-defined scientific questions, and align with the program’s non-clinical-trial, resource-access purpose.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIH Brain Development Cohorts (NBDC) Biospecimen Access (X01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.307, 93.313, 93.399.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-08-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-05-05. (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 PAR 23 229

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