Translational Outcomes Project in Neurotrauma (TOP-NT) (UG3/UH3) | RFA NS 17 023

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA NS 17 023

The Translational Outcomes Project in Neurotrauma (TOP-NT) (UG3/UH3) funding opportunity (RFA NS 17 023) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement program designed to tackle a persistent problem in neurotrauma research: preclinical spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) studies often rely on outcome measures that do not line up well with what clinicians actually evaluate at the bedside. Because of that mismatch, promising preclinical findings can be hard to interpret clinically, difficult to compare across studies, and less useful for guiding real-world diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment development. This FOA focuses on improving that bridge by supporting projects that build and validate outcome measures and functional markers in animal or other preclinical models that are grounded in underlying pathophysiology and that map as directly as possible onto practical clinical assessments used for SCI and/or TBI patients.

A central emphasis of TOP-NT is translational alignment: the funded work should leverage clinical knowledge and experience to shape what is measured in the preclinical setting. In practical terms, this means investigators are expected to design or refine assessment tools that capture biologically meaningful changes after neurotrauma while also producing readouts that resemble, correspond to, or can be compared with measures commonly used in clinical care or clinical research. The intent is not merely to add more endpoints, but to develop measures that are mechanistically informative, reproducible, and clinically interpretable. By improving the quality and relevance of preclinical outcome measures, NIH aims to increase the value of preclinical neurotrauma studies for predicting patient trajectories, stratifying injury severity, and identifying therapeutic effects that are more likely to translate into human benefit.

The mechanism listed is UG3/UH3 under a cooperative agreement structure. In NIH terms, this typically indicates a phased approach where an initial period (UG3) supports milestone-driven development, optimization, and early validation work, followed by a later period (UH3) that supports expanded validation or implementation once predefined progress criteria are met. The cooperative agreement aspect signals that NIH expects substantial programmatic involvement, meaning there is usually closer interaction with NIH staff compared with a standard research grant. The overall project design is therefore expected to be organized around clear deliverables, objective performance metrics, and a plan for demonstrating that the proposed outcome measures truly perform as intended and are suitable for broader adoption by the field.

Another major goal embedded in the FOA is data sharing and field utility. The opportunity explicitly notes that resulting data will be made available to researchers, reflecting an expectation that the products of the program will not stay confined to a single lab. This aligns with the broader aim of establishing better, more standardized, and more clinically relevant preclinical assessments that can be used across different research groups. In effect, TOP-NT is meant to help create shared translational measurement tools and datasets that improve cross-study comparability and strengthen the evidence base that informs clinical trials and therapeutic development pipelines in SCI and TBI.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity falls under the NIH health funding activity category and is associated with CFDA number 93.853. The original posting date (creation date) is April 25, 2017, and the original closing date listed is August 21, 2017, indicating this specific announcement is historical rather than a currently open competition. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided source details, which can happen when a solicitation leaves final budget and award counts dependent on available funds, application quality, and program priorities.

Eligibility is broad and spans many organization types, reflecting NIH’s interest in drawing on diverse expertise and infrastructure. Eligible applicants include federal, state, county, city/township, and special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other entities. The FOA also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant categories 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 (AANAPISIs), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations). That breadth signals an intent to encourage participation across sectors and geographies, including institutions that may bring unique clinical populations, specialized neurotrauma expertise, engineering/biomarker capabilities, or collaborative networks.

In plain terms, TOP-NT is about making preclinical neurotrauma research more clinically meaningful by upgrading the endpoints researchers use to judge recovery, impairment, and treatment effects after SCI and TBI. By funding the creation and validation of pathophysiology-informed measures that parallel real clinical assessments, and by requiring that the resulting data be shared, the program aims to strengthen the translational pipeline so that preclinical findings are more predictive, more comparable, and more useful for decisions in clinical research and patient care.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Translational Outcomes Project in Neurotrauma (TOP-NT) (UG3/UH3)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.853.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-04-25.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-08-21. (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 NS 17 023

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