Well Told Grants

Federal grant programs / Department of Health and Human Services

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (93.350)

Also known as NCATS

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (Assistance Listing 93.350) is run by the National Institutes of Health, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. It awarded $3.1 billion in 867 grants from fiscal 2021 to 2025, about $3.6 million per award on average. 34 funding opportunities are open or forecast now.

The typical award was $728,667. Half of the 867 awards fell between $200,000 and $2.3 million, and they ranged from $1,000 to $59.2 million.

Key findings

What the program funds

NCATS' mission is to turn research observations into health solutions through translational science. We work to develop or enhance the development, testing, and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide range of diseases and conditions. Key approaches include understanding what’s similar across diseases to spur multiple treatments at a time, developing models that better predict a person’s reaction to treatment, enhancing clinical trials so results more accurately reflect the patient population, and leveraging real-world data and data science approaches to address public health needs. Facilitating these approaches are our robust partnerships with other government agencies, including other NIH institutes, centers, and offices; industry; academia; nonprofit organizations; and patients, patient advocates, and other communities. NCATS' vision is to bring more treatments for all people more quickly.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open and forecast opportunities

9 more opportunities are listed with all open grants from Department of Health and Human Services.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

See above.

What the money can and cannot pay for

NCATS is all about getting more treatments to all patients more quickly. There are more than 10,000 known rare diseases and only a few hundred have safe, effective treatments. A novel drug, device or intervention can take 14 years and $2 billion to develop, with a failure rate exceeding 95%. NCATS is directly addressing this problem by discovering new technologies and other approaches that could greatly accelerate the process of developing and deploying solutions that can be used by all translational researchers. The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program supports a national, collaborative consortium focused on bringing more treatments to all people more quickly through advancing clinical and translational science. The Trial Innovation Network, inclusive of Trial Innovation Centers and a Recruitment Innovation Center, are intended to serve as a national model for innovation in clinical trial management and operations, participant recruitment, and will facilitate the implementation of multi-site clinical studies by the CTSA network. The CTSA Collaborative and Innovation Acceleration Awards supports synergistic activities that accelerate the translational research process through collaboration and innovation. NCATS supports a network of research consortia, each targeted to several related rare diseases. NCATS also supports an extensive resource of information for the public on rare diseases.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

NCATS Assistance: $1 - $11,215,948, average: $1,718,935

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Funding history and past recipients

From fiscal 2021 to 2025, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (93.350) awarded $3.1 billion across 867 grant awards, an average of $3.6 million per award.

Largest recipients, fiscal 2021 to 2025
RecipientStateAwardsAmount
University of Pittsburgh - of the Commonwealth System of Higher EducationPennsylvania15$95.3 million
Vanderbilt University Medical CenterTennessee10$94.6 million
Duke UniversityNorth Carolina11$88.9 million
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillNorth Carolina16$74.5 million
The Johns Hopkins UniversityMaryland20$70.7 million
Regents of the University of MichiganMichigan17$70.6 million
President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeMassachusetts8$68.4 million
The Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania11$67.5 million
New York UniversityNew York5$66.9 million
Yale UnivConnecticut5$66.6 million
The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New YorkNew York9$66.5 million
University of WashingtonWashington9$66.1 million
Trustees of Tufts CollegeMassachusetts8$65.8 million
The Washington UniversityMissouri7$64.8 million
Emory UniversityGeorgia7$61.6 million
The Regents of the University of California, San FranciscoCalifornia11$60.6 million
University of California, San DiegoCalifornia14$60.2 million
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew York10$57.1 million
The Leland Stanford Junior UniversityCalifornia9$56.8 million
Weill Medical College of Cornell UniversityNew York5$55.9 million

Top states: California ($405 million), New York ($351 million), Massachusetts ($239 million), North Carolina ($208 million), Pennsylvania ($200 million), Texas ($167 million), Ohio ($126 million), Illinois ($119 million), Tennessee ($98.0 million), Minnesota ($92.7 million).

Who usually wins

Colleges and universities received 82% of the money, nonprofits 8.6% and small businesses 3.9%.

Recipient typeAwardsAmountShare
Colleges and universities523$2.5 billion82%
Nonprofits157$267 million8.6%
Other34$171 million5.5%
Small businesses152$119 million3.9%
Businesses1$1.7 millionless than 0.1%

By state

35 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Grants by recipient's state, fiscal 2021 to 2025
StateAwardsAmount
California107$405 million
New York73$351 million
Massachusetts69$239 million
North Carolina56$208 million
Pennsylvania49$200 million
Texas52$167 million
Ohio43$126 million
Illinois28$119 million
Tennessee13$98.0 million
Minnesota17$92.7 million
Washington20$81.5 million
Maryland37$76.1 million
Wisconsin16$75.9 million
Michigan23$75.0 million
Connecticut7$67.2 million
Missouri8$64.9 million
Georgia10$64.4 million
Colorado27$58.7 million
Alabama14$56.1 million
Florida24$56.0 million
Oregon13$55.9 million
Indiana15$40.5 million
Virginia24$40.4 million
Utah13$38.2 million
New Jersey13$31.6 million
South Carolina9$29.4 million
District of Columbia13$26.4 million
Kansas5$25.7 million
Iowa9$25.1 million
Arkansas6$24.8 million
New Mexico5$23.7 million
Kentucky6$23.7 million
New Hampshire2$8.4 million
Arizona4$5.0 million
Montana2$756,860
Delaware2$583,370
Louisiana2$299,226
Rhode Island24$284,168
Nebraska1$35,886
North Dakota1$31,138
Mississippi1$6,000

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.