Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions
Funds small clinical-trial research at undergraduate-focused colleges that get under $6 million a year from NIH.
NIH's Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program funds small research grants at undergraduate-focused colleges and universities that don't already receive much NIH funding. This specific notice, PAR-24-214, is the version that requires the funded project to include a clinical trial — either a mechanistic study or a "minimal risk" trial that doesn't need FDA oversight, isn't trying to prove…
Small-scale, investigator-initiated research projects that include a mechanistic or minimal-risk clinical trial, run at undergraduate-focused colleges and universities, plus the hands-on research experience these awards give undergraduate students.
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 how they score you
Sign up free to see the timeline
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.
Write proposalHow to Write a Grant Proposal Reviewers Can Score
Learn how to write a grant proposal around reviewer criteria, evidence, work packages, budget logic, and commercialization for deeptech and R&D funding.
More from NIH
All grants from this funder →Nutrition Obesity Research Centers (NORCs)
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds shared research cores, pilot funding and a catalyst programme where a substantial nutrition or obesity research effort already exists.
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.
Similar grants
Browse the directory →
CFF Clinical Research Award
🇺🇸CFF · United States
Supports investigator-driven clinical studies addressing diagnosis, treatment, and prevention across key medical priorities.
AHA Institutional Research Enhancement Award (AIREA)
AHA · United States
Supports institutional cardiovascular research capacity through enhancement awards to strengthen real-world implementation.
McKinney Innovation Fund — Recruitment Grant
🇺🇸McKinney EDC · United States
Funds growing technology companies relocating to McKinney, Texas, with support tied to sustained operations and hiring.
Parkinson's Foundation Stanley Fahn Junior Faculty Award
🇺🇸Parkinson's Foundation · United States
Funds early-career Parkinson's disease researchers at United States and Canada institutions through independent investigator support.
Career Development Award
🇺🇸LUNGevity Foundation · United States
Helps fellowship for early-career lung-cancer researchers through the Career Development Award.
MRA Young Investigator Award
🇺🇸MRA · United States
Supports early-career melanoma researchers through fellowships and grants that launch independent research direction.