NIH Research Software Engineer (RSE) Award (R50 Clinical Trials Not Allowed) | RFA OD 24 011

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA OD 24 011

The NIH Research Software Engineer (RSE) Award (R50 Clinical Trials Not Allowed), funding opportunity number RFA-OD-24-011, is a discretionary NIH grant designed to provide salary support for outstanding Research Software Engineers who play a central role in biomedical, behavioral, or health-related research through software. The focus is not on funding a traditional research project with experiments or a clinical protocol, but on sustaining highly skilled technical professionals whose primary impact comes from building, improving, maintaining, and broadly sharing software, tools, and algorithms that the research community relies on. A key part of the role supported by this award is also training and enabling others, meaning applicants should expect that documentation, user support, onboarding, workshops, tutorials, and other dissemination activities are part of what NIH expects the funded RSE to deliver.

This opportunity is explicitly limited to non-clinical-trial activities, as indicated by the “Clinical Trials Not Allowed” designation. In practice, that means the supported work should not be structured as a clinical trial, should not propose assigning human participants to interventions to evaluate health-related outcomes, and should instead emphasize software engineering contributions that accelerate or strengthen health-related science. The software being developed or disseminated can still be highly relevant to clinical research or public health, but the award itself is not meant to be the mechanism for running an interventional clinical study.

Eligibility for applicant organizations is broad and spans much of the U.S. research and public service ecosystem. Eligible applicants include state, county, and local governments; 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; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; and Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized governments. The opportunity also permits applications from nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status, as well as for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses. NIH further highlights additional eligible applicant categories 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, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. Collectively, this reflects NIH’s intent to make the award accessible to a wide range of institutions where impactful RSE work is happening.

At the same time, there are clear restrictions related to foreign entities. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations) are not eligible to apply as applicant organizations, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible to apply as the applicant. However, NIH states that “foreign components,” as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. This distinction matters: while a foreign organization cannot be the lead applicant, a U.S.-based applicant may be able to include certain foreign elements of the work when they meet NIH’s definition and justification requirements for foreign components.

The funding instrument is a grant, and the activity category is listed broadly across areas that include education, environment, food and nutrition, health, and social services, reflecting the cross-cutting nature of software that supports modern biomedical and behavioral research. Multiple CFDA (assistance listing) numbers are associated with the opportunity, indicating that NIH institutes and centers across many mission areas may participate or that the award aligns with multiple NIH funding streams. The opportunity was created on July 17, 2024, and the original closing date is listed as December 4, 2026. The public summary does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards, so applicants typically need to consult the full NOFO text for budget expectations, the allowable scope of salary and related costs, and any institute-specific participation details.

In terms of what NIH is trying to accomplish, the central goal is workforce and infrastructure: retaining and empowering exceptional RSEs whose work increases the reliability, usability, scalability, and reach of research software, and who actively help others adopt these tools. Competitive applications for this type of award generally align the RSE’s contributions with community benefit, such as open and well-maintained codebases, robust testing and documentation practices, thoughtful release and versioning strategies, user-centered design, interoperability with existing ecosystems, and concrete plans for training and dissemination that expand the user base and improve correct use of the software.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, food and nutrition, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIH Research Software Engineer (RSE) Award (R50 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.121, 93.172, 93.213, 93.233, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.307, 93.310, 93.396, 93.398, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840, 93.846, 93.847, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867, 93.879.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-12-04. (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 OD 24 011

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