Deadline: October 24, 2025
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the funding opportunity Pilot Projects to Enhance the Human Virome Program (R03, Clinical Trials Not Allowed), aiming to support small-scale research that advances the goals of the Human Virome Program (HVP).
The Human Virome Program (HVP) focuses on characterizing the human virome, including eukaryotic and prokaryotic viruses and viral particles, and on creating tools, models, and methods that enable in-depth study of the virome’s breadth and variation, its association with host factors, and its influence on human health. It also seeks to explore inter-kingdom interactions such as host-virome and microbiome-virome relationships. The program consists of four initiatives: characterizing the human virome and its dynamics by utilizing longitudinal, demographically diverse human cohorts; facilitating the discovery and annotation of viruses by developing tools, models, and methods that will improve detection, sensitivity, purification, and scalability; studying interactions between the virome and the human host, as well as with other components of the human microbiome; and creating a Consortium Organization and Data Collaboration Center (CODCC) that will serve as an organizational and cooperation hub for the HVP Consortium and external groups and through the creation of a human virome catalog and data portal.
This funding opportunity invites small pilot projects that expand or complement existing Human Virome Program efforts. Proposed research may include validating or improving HVP-developed tools, leveraging human or animal specimens to refine methods, expanding biospecimen cohorts or sampling sites, developing new virome study tools, or defining virome-host interactions. Projects must avoid overlap with ongoing HVP research and should not focus narrowly on specific disease states.
The NIH Common Fund intends to commit approximately $2 million in FY2026, supporting about six awards. Each award is limited to $100,000 in direct costs per year, disbursed within the first year, with a maximum project period of two years. The program encourages collaboration across the HVP consortium, requiring awardees to actively participate in annual investigator meetings and joint research initiatives.
Eligible applicants include higher education institutions, nonprofits, for-profit organizations, local governments, state governments, tribal governments, and other entities based in the United States. Non-domestic entities are not eligible, and applications involving foreign subawards will not be considered.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
