Targeting RNA in Disease with Novel Technologies (TRDNT) Challenge – Phase I
Paid up to $20,000 each to as many as 25 winners in Phase I of a three-phase NIH challenge for technologies that target RNA directly to treat human disease.
This is Phase I of the NIH's three-phase TRDNT Challenge, run through the NIH Common Fund Venture Program. Phase I asked participants to propose a novel RNA-targeting technology and explain how it could become a prototype; that phase is now closed, with up to 25 winners sharing a $500,000 purse. Phase II is open to new entrants too, not just Phase I winners, and itself runs in two stages: an inter…
The challenge is looking for novel technologies that target endogenous RNA in human disease, including approaches that modify RNA-RNA-binding-protein interactions, address long non-coding RNAs, or use new assays and screening libraries to find RNA-targeting small molecules. It excludes standard RNA-based therapeutics that do not specifically target endogenous RNA.
Sign up free to see the funding breakdown
Sign up free to see the industries in scope
Sign up free to see the full eligibility
Sign up free to see how to apply
Sign up free to see what you submit
Sign up free to see where teams trip up
Guides for this application
All guides →NIH Biosketch Guide: Format, SciENcv Steps, and Examples
Learn what an NIH biosketch is, how the format works, what to prepare for SciENcv, and how startup teams should avoid common biosketch mistakes.
Write proposalHow to Write a Specific Aims Page
Learn how to write a specific aims page for NIH, SBIR-adjacent, and translational R&D grants, with structure, reviewer logic, examples, and common mistakes.
Where to applyGrants for Biotech Startups: NIH, NSF, SBIR/STTR, and Non-Dilutive Funding
A practical guide to grants for biotech startups, including NIH SBIR/STTR, NSF, translational funding, evidence, regulatory readiness, and budgets.
DocumentsGrant Work Plan Template: Work Packages, Gantt, Milestones, and Risks
Use this grant work plan template to structure work packages, tasks, owners, deliverables, Gantt timing, dependencies, and risk registers.
More from NIH
All grants from this funder →Optimizing Behavioral Sleep Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds a pilot trial of a behavioural sleep intervention for adolescents and young adults who have a mental health disorder or are at risk of one.
GREGoRi Data Coordination and Outreach Center
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds the one centre that coordinates a rare-disease genomics programme and gets its protocols, data and tools out to everybody else.
GREGoRi Innovation Projects
NIH · United States
Funds a genuinely new experimental or computational approach to finding the cause of a rare genetic disorder, where the current state of the art falls short.
GREGoRi Technology Integration Center
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds the centre that turns new molecular methods for rare-disease diagnosis into standards, best practices and a benchmarking dataset.
Clinical Observational (CO) Studies in Musculoskeletal, Rheumatic, and Skin Diseases
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds studies that watch patients rather than treat them, in bone, joint, rheumatic and skin disease. No intervention allowed.
Exploratory Clinical Trial Grants in Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (R61)
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds early-stage clinical trials in arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin disease. A trial is compulsory.
Similar grants
Browse the directory →
NOURISH: Autoimmunity Digital Health Challenge
🇺🇸OADR-ORWH · United States
Awards up to $650,000 across three phases for digital tools tracking autoimmune nutrition.
Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Data Innovation Challenge — Track 1
🇺🇸NCI · United States
Pays entities up to $566,665 across three milestones to add shovel-ready cancer data or tools to NCI's CCDI ecosystem.
NCATS Translational Science Education and Training Challenge
🇺🇸NCATS · United States
Awards five $10,000 prizes for standout translational-science education and training programs.
2025 "$100,000 Start an SUD Startup" Challenge
🇺🇸NIDA · United States
Pays teams up to $10,000 each, plus six months of biotech mentoring, for drug-use research ideas.
Oligonucleotide Toxicity (OligoTox) Open Data Challenge
🇺🇸NCATS · United States
Pays cash prizes for public datasets that help predict oligonucleotide drug toxicity in human cells.
MIT Solve Global Challenges
🇺🇸MIT · United States
Supports teams tackling global challenges by selecting and backing scalable ideas through MIT Solve challenge pathways.