Interdisciplinary Research Teams to Investigate Reciprocal Basic Behavioral and Social Linkages Between Sleep and Stress (R24 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 18 694

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 18 694

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity PAR-18-694, titled "Interdisciplinary Research Teams to Investigate Reciprocal Basic Behavioral and Social Linkages Between Sleep and Stress (R24 Clinical Trial Optional)," supports the creation and strengthening of transdisciplinary research teams focused on basic behavioral, social, and biobehavioral science. The central goal is to generate foundational knowledge about the two-way, dynamic relationship between sleep and stress: how stress can disrupt sleep through psychological and physiological pathways, and how disrupted sleep can in turn drive physiological changes and impair functioning even when people do not fully notice or correctly interpret their own sleep-related deficits.

A major emphasis of this opportunity is team science and method development. Rather than funding a single narrow project, the R24 mechanism is intended to build and evaluate collaborative approaches, shared methods, and integrated investigative capacity across disciplines. NIH is looking for applications that bring together expertise across behavioral and social sciences, biology/physiology, and environmental and contextual domains to better capture how sleep patterns and psychosocial stress interact over time. The work is framed as basic research, meaning it is aimed at understanding underlying mechanisms and linkages that can later inform prevention or treatment, while still recognizing that these reciprocal processes can shape real-world outcomes such as health and wellness, disease risk and progression, and treatment adherence.

Scientifically, the FOA highlights that stress-related sleep disruption can occur via cognitive-emotional routes (for example, worry, hyperarousal, threat vigilance) as well as biological routes (such as changes in neuroendocrine function or autonomic activity). It also notes that sleep disruption can produce measurable physiological changes, and that a key complication is that individuals may not accurately recognize the degree to which their performance, mood, or health is being affected by inadequate or disturbed sleep. As a result, the initiative encourages research that can connect subjective experience with objective indicators, and that can situate sleep-stress processes within broader individual, social, biological, and environmental contexts.

From an eligibility standpoint, the opportunity is open to a wide range of U.S.-based applicants. Eligible entities include state, county, city, township, and 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 that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (outside of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and other eligible organizations. The FOA explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant types such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions.

At the same time, there are clear restrictions related to foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic (non-U.S.) institutions are not eligible to apply. In addition, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed under this announcement. In practical terms, the funded work and the applying organizational structure must remain U.S.-based without foreign components embedded in the application.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant opportunity under NIH, with a funding activity category in Health and CFDA numbers 93.273 and 93.846. The listed original closing date in the source information is November 29, 2018, and the opportunity record indicates a creation date of March 2, 2018. The announcement does not provide an award ceiling or an expected number of awards in the provided excerpt, which usually means applicants would need to consult the full FOA text and NIH institute-specific guidance for budget expectations and projected award volume. The "clinical trial optional" designation indicates that applications may include a clinical trial if appropriate, but a clinical trial is not required, which aligns with the FOA's basic behavioral and social science orientation while still allowing experimental designs when justified.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as NIH support for building robust, cross-cutting research teams and shared methodological infrastructure aimed at clarifying how stress and sleep continually influence one another, and how that reciprocal loop translates into downstream health and behavioral consequences. The intent is to strengthen the science base by promoting integrative, team-based approaches that can capture multi-level influences and produce more complete, mechanistic accounts of sleep-stress linkages than siloed studies typically can.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Interdisciplinary Research Teams to Investigate Reciprocal Basic Behavioral and Social Linkages Between Sleep and Stress (R24 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.273, 93.846.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-03-02.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-11-29. (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.

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