Limited Competition: Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Centers (U42 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 24 105

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 24 105

The Limited Competition: Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Centers (MMRRC) funding opportunity (PAR-24-105) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) cooperative agreement mechanism (U42, clinical trial not allowed) designed to keep the MMRRC program operating at a high level and to push it forward as a critical national research infrastructure. The overall purpose is to support a coordinated consortium that makes high-quality mutant mouse strains and associated biomaterials broadly available to qualified biomedical researchers, helping speed discovery while improving rigor, transparency, and reproducibility across mouse-based research.

At its core, the MMRRC consortium functions as a national pipeline for mutant mouse resources. Awardees are expected to identify and acquire valuable mutant strains from the research community, then evaluate and characterize them so users can trust what they are receiving and how it will perform in experiments. A major emphasis is on cryopreservation (for long-term preservation and strain security) and efficient distribution so that investigators can obtain strains and related materials without needing to recreate models from scratch. The program explicitly covers transgenic, knockout, and other genetically engineered mouse models, reflecting the breadth of modern functional genomics and disease modeling. By centralizing these activities, the MMRRC reduces duplication of effort, lowers costs for the community, and helps ensure that important strains are not lost when labs change focus, lose funding, or close.

The opportunity continues the existing structure of the MMRRC as a regional network of four centers plus a dedicated Informatics, Coordination and Service Center (ICSC). In practice, this means the system is not just separate repositories working independently, but a coordinated set of nodes that collectively provide national coverage and consistent service. The ICSC role is to support harmonized informatics, coordination, and service functions across the consortium, which is especially important for discoverability (so researchers can find the right strains), standardized documentation, and consistent operational practices. The cooperative agreement format signals that NIH will have substantial involvement in the program’s direction and stewardship compared with a standard research grant, which fits the resource-building and community-service nature of the MMRRC.

A defining feature highlighted in the announcement is the program’s quality and documentation standards. Strains accepted into the MMRRC are expected to be thoroughly reviewed and documented, with added quality control measures beyond minimal checks. The intent is to optimize reproducibility and strengthen scientific rigor and transparency. In practical terms, this typically translates into careful verification of genotype and background, confirmation of strain identity, clear records of how the model was generated and maintained, and consistent data capture so end users understand what they are receiving and can interpret results appropriately. The emphasis on quality control is also meant to protect downstream studies from avoidable confounds such as genetic drift, contamination, or incomplete reporting.

In addition to the core resource responsibilities, each funded MMRRC site’s Program Director/Principal Investigator is required to pursue a small, high-risk/high-return research pilot project. This pilot is not meant to replace the service mission; it is intended to complement it by enabling innovation that directly supports consortium goals and emerging community needs. The idea is to allow each center to test novel approaches, tools, or methods that could improve acquisition, characterization, preservation, distribution, informatics, or overall utility of the resource, while keeping the pilot appropriately sized relative to the main operational workload.

Eligibility information in the provided text notes that non-domestic (non-U.S.) organizations are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible. The source data also lists small businesses among eligible applicants, while the title indicates a limited competition, which generally means only certain applicants may be permitted to apply (often current awardees or a defined subset). Because limited competition details can be specific and restrictive, applicants would need to rely on the full NOFO language to confirm exactly who can apply under this round and under what conditions.

Key administrative details from the source data include: the agency is NIH; the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding; the activity category is health; the CFDA number is 93.351; the application due date listed is 2024-09-01; and there is no award ceiling amount specified in the provided excerpt (and expected awards are not listed in the snippet). The clinical trial designation is "not allowed," meaning the proposed work should not include clinical trials as defined by NIH policy, which aligns with the infrastructure and preclinical model resource focus of the MMRRC program.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Centers (U42 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): 93.351.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-01-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-09-01. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for PAR 24 105

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