Elucidation and Validation of the role of Transporters in the Placenta, Lactating Mammary Gland, Developing Gut, and Blood Brain Barrier
🏛 National Institutes of Health (HHS-NIH11)
✓ Free, no account · Source: Grants.gov · Last verified Jul 17, 2026
Can you apply?
This grant is for academic and research institutions seeking to advance understanding of drug and nutrient transport across maternal, fetal, and pediatric barriers. Eligible applicants typically include universities, medical research centers, and other research institutions with capacity to conduct translational biomedical research. Projects must focus on transporter mechanisms in the placenta, mammary gland, developing gut, or blood-brain barrier during pregnancy, lactation, or early development. The grant supports mechanistic studies, model development, and resource creation relevant to perinatal exposure and pediatric pharmacology. Investigators should have research experience in transporter biology, developmental pharmacology, or related fields.
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Key dates
- Jul 16, 2026 Applications open
- Oct 20, 2027 Application deadline in 459 days
- Jul 1, 2028 Award announced
- Jul 1, 2028 Project start
Program description
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development seeks to advance its mission of supporting maternal, fetal, and child health by continuing to enhance the understanding of maternal, fetal, and child exposure to nutrients, metabolites, medications, supplements, microbiome-derived products, and environmental chemicals. This will be done by supporting a second phase of the Transporter Elucidation Network (TEN). This phase of the TEN will establish perinatal multi-barrier transport network frameworks to clarify how transporters and local biotransformation regulate these processes. Building on prior organ-focused models, methods, and datasets, this initiative will develop standards, resources, models, and prototype multi-compartment approaches spanning maternal gut, placenta, lactating mammary epithelium, infant gut, and infant blood-brain barrier. The initiative is expected to support a mechanistic understanding of transporter function, polarity, kinetics, and transformation capacity relevant to pregnancy, lactation, infant nutrition, pediatric pharmacology, and neurodevelopment. By emphasizing multi-barrier perinatal transporter frameworks this phase of the TEN will provide community resources for future integrated studies of perinatal exposure, risk, and intervention across interlinked maternal, fetal, and infant systems. It will also strengthen coordination among investigators, accelerate dissemination of tools, and advance human-based, developmentally relevant transporter research and workforce development. The grant authority for this is 42 U.S.C. § 241
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
How to apply
Application links
Key dates & requirements
Required documents
- NIH SF-424 R&R form
- Project Narrative (specific NIH page limits apply)
- Detailed Budget and Budget Justification
- Biographical sketches (NIH format)
- Letters of support
- Preliminary data and figures
- Specific aims (typically 1 page)
Program contact
- 👤 Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics Branch (OPPTB) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- 📧 nichd_opptb_nofos@mail.nih.gov
- 📞 Please contact via e-mail
Funding track record
Recent awards under CFDA 93.865 from the last 3 years — real organizations that won funding through this same program.
Top 10 Largest Recent Awards
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$1,073,967,938
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$719,372,575
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$276,059,721
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$155,556,396
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$155,482,198
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$103,665,364
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$74,151,078
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$72,701,366
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$52,238,426
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$47,450,377
Top States by Funding
- WA 1 awards $1,074.0M
- NC 7 awards $925.9M
- MD 4 awards $501.6M
- MA 3 awards $190.0M
- PA 3 awards $145.1M
Source: USAspending.gov — federal spending transparency. Data covers last 3 years.
Funding history
Annual funding for this program — Federal obligations (CFDA 93.865). How funding has trended year over year.
| 2024 | $1,282,226,682 | |
| 2025 | $1,333,391,690 | |
| 2026 est. | $184,920,723 |
FAQ
Who can apply for this grant?
Research institutions including universities, medical centers, and established research organizations. Investigators must have expertise in transporter biology or developmental pharmacology.
What types of projects are fundable?
Research establishing multi-barrier transport models, methods, and datasets. Focus on placental, mammary, infant gut, and blood-brain barrier transport mechanisms.
Is cost-sharing required?
No. This grant does not require matching funds or cost-sharing from applicants.
What is the application deadline?
The deadline is October 20, 2027. Applicants should submit well before the deadline.
How competitive is this funding?
Very competitive. This is a NIH peer-reviewed research grant with a $3M total pool. Strong preliminary data and innovative approaches are essential.
💡 Tips for applicants
- Build your application around multi-barrier transport frameworks. Single-barrier models are less competitive than integrated perinatal approaches.
- Emphasize community resource development and workforce training components. Dissemination and capacity-building strengthen competitiveness.
- Use strong preliminary data demonstrating transporter validation in relevant biological systems. Solid proof-of-concept is critical for NIH grants.
- Clearly define how your research advances pediatric pharmacology or infant nutrition understanding. Connect mechanistic findings to clinical relevance.
- Align your specific aims with the TEN initiative's focus on standards, models, and resources for perinatal barriers.
⚠️ Common mistakes
Submitting single-barrier transport studies without integration into perinatal frameworks. Overestimating feasibility without sufficient preliminary data demonstrating transporter validation methods. Failing to clearly articulate how findings advance pediatric pharmacology or maternal-fetal-infant health understanding.
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