Tobacco Use and HIV in Low and Middle Income Countries (R21) | PAR 17 086

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 17 086

The Tobacco Use and HIV in Low and Middle Income Countries (R21) funding opportunity (PAR-17-086) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) discretionary grant designed to support early-stage, exploratory, and developmental research at the intersection of tobacco use and HIV in low and middle income countries (LMICs). The central goal is to generate practical, testable ideas and preliminary evidence that can improve tobacco-related outcomes among people living with HIV in settings where healthcare resources, staffing, and infrastructure may be limited. The announcement emphasizes work that is directly relevant to LMIC contexts, where both tobacco exposure and HIV burden can be substantial, and where standard cessation approaches used in higher-resource environments may not be feasible, affordable, or culturally appropriate without thoughtful adaptation.

A major focus of the opportunity is the development and evaluation of tobacco cessation interventions tailored specifically to HIV-positive populations. This includes interventions that fit into real-world HIV care delivery systems and respond to the needs of patients whose clinical and social circumstances may make quitting more difficult. The FOA explicitly encourages projects that consider co-morbidities such as tuberculosis (TB), recognizing that TB and HIV co-infection is a major public health challenge in many LMICs and that tobacco use can worsen respiratory health, complicate treatment, and contribute to poorer outcomes. In practice, responsive projects might explore how to integrate cessation support into HIV or TB clinics, how to train available cadres of health workers to deliver brief cessation counseling, how to adapt pharmacologic or behavioral supports to low-resource settings, or how to address barriers such as stigma, mental health stressors, or inconsistent access to medications and follow-up care.

Because this is an R21 mechanism, the FOA is oriented toward exploratory and developmental work rather than large-scale definitive trials. It supports key early steps needed to move an intervention or implementation approach forward, including research planning activities, the actual delivery of an intervention, and follow-up activities to assess outcomes and feasibility. In other words, the grant can cover the practical arc of pilot testing: preparing and tailoring an approach for the local setting, implementing it in a defined population, and collecting follow-up data to understand whether it is acceptable, workable, and promising enough to justify a larger study later.

The opportunity is categorized under Education and Health and is associated with CFDA numbers 93.279 and 93.393. The award ceiling listed is $200,000. The original closing date shown in the source information is January 7, 2020, and the posting (creation) date is December 15, 2016. Applicants should note that these dates indicate the opportunity as originally published and may require verification of current availability or re-issuance if pursuing a similar funding line today.

Eligibility is broad and spans many organization types, reflecting NIH’s intent to encourage diverse partnerships and applicant pools, including those with deep community roots or direct operational presence in LMIC health systems. 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; tribal organizations and tribal governments other than federally recognized entities; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The FOA also highlights additional eligible applicants 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, U.S. territories or possessions, regional organizations, and non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations). This breadth is especially relevant for LMIC-focused research, where partnerships between U.S.-based institutions and in-country organizations, ministries of health, universities, clinics, or community groups are often essential for ethical engagement, feasibility, and long-term impact.

Overall, this FOA targets practical, context-aware research that helps close a critical gap in global health: addressing tobacco use among people living with HIV in LMICs through interventions that can realistically be delivered in low-resource environments. By supporting planning, pilot implementation, and follow-up, it aims to create a pipeline of well-grounded interventions and implementation strategies that can later be scaled or tested more rigorously, ultimately improving HIV-related health outcomes and reducing tobacco-related disease burden in vulnerable populations.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Tobacco Use and HIV in Low and Middle Income Countries (R21)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.279, 93.393.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-12-15.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-01-07. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• 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 PAR 17 086

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: