Single Source for the Continuation of the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP) for Type 1 Diabetes (HPAP-T1D) (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 25 012

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 25 012

This funding opportunity is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to continue the Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes (HPAP-T1D). It is explicitly described as a non-competitive, single-source action, meaning NIH intends to make one award to a specific organization, the University of Pennsylvania, rather than run an open competition among multiple applicants. The award mechanism is a U01 cooperative agreement (Clinical Trial Not Allowed), which signals that NIH will have substantial programmatic involvement during the project, and that the supported work is not intended to be a clinical trial.

The core purpose of the award is to sustain and advance HPAP-T1D as a major translational research resource focused on understanding type 1 diabetes in humans by studying real human pancreatic tissue and related immune compartments. The program is built around the idea that direct analysis of primary tissues from people with type 1 diabetes, people at risk for developing the disease, and appropriate age-matched controls can reveal critical details about how beta cells are lost, how immune attack is organized, and what biological pathways might be targeted to prevent, slow, or reverse disease. HPAP-T1D is also positioned as a component of the broader Human Islet Research Network (HIRN), which was established in 2014 to support collaborative, innovative research aimed at explaining human beta cell loss in type 1 diabetes and developing strategies to protect and replace functional beta cell mass.

The work supported under this continuation award centers on two major responsibilities. First, the awardee team is expected to identify, collect, and deeply characterize primary pancreatic tissues and immune cells from the target donor groups (individuals with type 1 diabetes, those at risk, and age-matched controls). This includes the operational and scientific capacity to handle the full pipeline: donor identification and coordination, tissue acquisition, standardized processing, and intensive multimodal characterization of pancreas and immune-related samples. Second, the program must analyze, organize, and broadly share the resulting data through the existing PANC DB open-access database. In practice, this means that HPAP-T1D is not only generating biological specimens and datasets, but also acting as a data and resource hub, with ongoing database building, curation, management, and dissemination so that other researchers can reuse and build on these data.

Because of the breadth of the mission, the NOFO emphasizes that the supported team must collectively cover several specialized areas of expertise. These include human pancreas physiology and pathophysiology, immunology and autoimmunity as they relate to type 1 diabetes, the collection and processing of pancreatic tissues and immune compartments, multimodal analytical approaches (for example, integrating different types of molecular, cellular, and histological measurements), and robust data infrastructure skills to support database development and long-term data stewardship. The practical implication is that the program is meant to function like a coordinated platform rather than a narrow single-lab project, with integrated capabilities spanning biospecimen operations, high-dimensional biology, and open science data sharing.

Administratively, the opportunity is labeled as discretionary funding and uses the cooperative agreement funding instrument type. The opportunity number is RFA-DK-25-012, and the listed CFDA number is 93.847. The original closing date is 2024-10-24. The notice lists an award ceiling of $5,500,000, and it indicates an expectation of a single award, consistent with the single-source intent described in the narrative. While the source data includes a generic eligible applicant category (small businesses), the NOFO text itself makes clear that this particular action is intended as a single-source continuation to the University of Pennsylvania, so the practical eligibility landscape is dominated by that stated intent.

Eligibility limitations are also clearly stated around foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations) are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible to apply. At the same time, the NOFO notes that foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. In NIH terms, that typically means the funded U.S. awardee may include certain foreign collaborations or elements as part of the overall project if they meet NIH policy requirements, even though a foreign organization cannot be the primary applicant or award recipient here.

Taken together, this NOFO is best understood as a targeted continuation of an existing national research resource: a single cooperative agreement designed to keep HPAP-T1D operating and expanding its collection, characterization, and open sharing of human pancreas and immune data relevant to type 1 diabetes. The emphasis is less on proposing an entirely new research direction and more on maintaining and strengthening a highly specialized infrastructure and expertise base that supports the wider type 1 diabetes research community through curated tissues, rigorous multimodal analyses, and a publicly accessible database (PANC DB) tied to the HIRN ecosystem.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Single Source for the Continuation of the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP) for Type 1 Diabetes (HPAP-T1D) (U01 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): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-06-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-10-24. (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 $5,500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

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