Building Sustainable Software Tools for Open Science
Supports transparent science software development for research reproducibility and community collaboration.
⚠This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.
RFA-OD-24-010, issued by the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy, funds teams working to enhance the sustainability and open-science impact of biomedical research software tools through the R03 small-grant mechanism. The program is part of the NIH-wide Sustainable Software Tools for Open Science (SSTOS) initiative led by ODSS, which coordinated across 19 NIH institutes and centers and supported 125 admin supplement awards between FY2020 and FY2023 before transitioning to standalone RFAs. RFA-OD-24-010 specifically supports software development best practices, implementation of FAIR principles for software, and the building of partnerships between software developers and research user communities. Clinical trials are not allowed under this announcement.
The R03 is NIH's small-research-grant mechanism, carrying NIH-standard budget caps lower than a typical R01. The most recent confirmed application deadline was December 4, 2024. Eligible applicants include U.S. higher education institutions, nonprofits, for-profit organizations, small businesses, and research organizations; individual investigators are not eligible. The companion announcement RFA-OD-24-011 covers the NIH Research Software Engineer (RSE) Award, a separate mechanism supporting exceptional software engineers contributing to NIH-funded research. FAQs for both RFAs are maintained at datascience.nih.gov/tools-and-analytics/FAQs-for-RFA-OD-24-010-and-RFA-OD-24-011.
Applicants should identify a specific, actively-used NIH-funded research software tool and propose concrete improvements to its sustainability, documentation, testing infrastructure, or community engagement model. Reviewers will assess whether the proposed practices will meaningfully extend the tool's useful life and broaden its adoption in the biomedical research community. The SSTOS program has funded 125 prior awards through the supplement track, indicating a mature program with established review expectations and a clear appetite for practical software engineering improvements over theoretical work.
Funds R03 small grants to improve the sustainability and FAIR-principled open-science impact of biomedical research software tools through best practices and developer-user community engagement.
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