National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Supports infectious disease, immunology, and allergy research through grants, cooperative programs, and translational partnerships.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is a U.S. federal research institute within the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. It is one of NIH's 27 institutes and centers, and its mission is to conduct and support basic and applied research that improves prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. The institute's 2026 strategic vision narrows that mandate toward the most impactful infectious diseases in the United States and deeper work in immunology, allergy, and autoimmunity.

NIAID funds through grants and cooperative agreements, with investigator-initiated P01s alongside targeted RFAs and other competitive calls. Its small-business awards alone exceed $193 million a year, and the current program set includes the NIAID Small Business SBIR route, the investigator-initiated P01 program, Coccidioidomycosis Collaborative Research Centers, Tuberculosis Research Advancement Centers, and an influenza immunity cooperative agreement. Awards in the portfolio reach up to $2.4 million for small business projects, $1.2 million for coccidioidomycosis centers, $600,000 for TB centers, and $3 million for the influenza program. Most opportunities are aimed at U.S. organizations, though some calls allow designated international collaboration.

The institute is organized around disease-focused divisions such as AIDS, allergy and transplantation, microbiology and infectious diseases, clinical research, and intramural research, which gives it a tight line from discovery to trial work. It is especially relevant for teams working on vaccines, therapeutics, host-pathogen biology, immunology, and allergy or autoimmune research that can align with a specific program call. The public-facing funding entry point is the NIH opportunities system, while NIAID itself provides the scientific priorities and review structure that shape each competition.