The National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program has opened RFA-OD-27-006, Maximizing the Scientific Value of Data Generated by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program: Dissertation Grant (R36 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed).
The opportunity supports doctoral candidates conducting dissertation research on high-priority child-health questions through secondary analysis of ECHO longitudinal data. The ECHO resource integrates de-identified longitudinal information from more than 71,000 participants and supports research across pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes, airway health, obesity, neurodevelopment, positive health, environmental exposures, developmental trajectories, and related child-health questions.
Deadline: October 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. The opportunity opened September 15, 2026. Only new applications are allowed.
Funding: NIH intends to fund an estimated eight awards with $1,260,000 in total funding across FY 2027-2028. Per year, applicants may request a salary consistent with the current NRSA predoctoral stipend level plus up to $15,000 for additional allowable expenses such as qualifying fringe benefits, health insurance, scientific-meeting travel, and dissertation research costs. F&A is reimbursed at 8% of modified total direct costs. The project period must be at least 12 months and may not exceed 24 months. Cost sharing is not required.
Eligibility: Eligible organization types include public and private institutions of higher education, qualifying nonprofits, small businesses and other for-profit organizations, state and local governments, Tribal governments and organizations, independent school districts, public and Indian housing authorities, faith-based and community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. Foreign organizations, foreign components, and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible.
The PD/PI must be a qualifying predoctoral student at the dissertation stage, in good standing in an accredited U.S. research doctoral program, with the required research degree enrollment and an approved dissertation proposal by the time of award. Multiple PD/PIs are not allowed. By award, the individual must be a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or lawful permanent resident. NIH requires full-time research training effort for the award.
Submission: Applications are submitted electronically through Grants.gov using NIH ASSIST, an institutional system-to-system solution, or Grants.gov Workspace and are tracked in eRA Commons. Required registrations must be active by submission. The application must follow the NIH Research (R) Application Guide and NOFO-specific instructions.
Required application controls: The application includes the applicable SF424(R&R) components, R&R Budget, PHS 398 Research Plan, and applicable human-subjects materials. A one-page Plan for Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research is mandatory. Letters of Support must be combined into one PDF and include a signed Candidate Eligibility Statement from the supervising faculty advisor, dissertation committee chair, or responsible university official, plus advisor and reference letters addressing progress, research commitment, independence potential, and institutional support. A Data Management and Sharing Plan is not applicable under this NOFO. Equipment, alterations or renovations, space rental, consortium or contracting costs, dissertation defense or deposit fees, membership fees, research-assistant support, and faculty or consultant effort are among the specifically unallowable costs.
Current ECHO data-access control: The original NOFO refers to NICHD DASH, but NIH ECHO subsequently stated that the DASH repository language is no longer accurate because of administrative changes. The current ECHO data-availability page directs researchers to ECHO Cohort data through the All of Us Researcher Workbench. Applicants should use the current ECHO data-access instructions rather than relying on the superseded repository wording in the original NOFO.
Atlas fit: This is a strong academic-health and child-health research opportunity but a narrow candidate-specific mechanism. Although several organization classes, including for-profits, are structurally eligible, a standalone Dr. Miltie direct pursuit is not treated as viable without a qualifying enrolled doctoral candidate, approved dissertation trajectory, faculty supervision, institutional research support, required registrations, and a scientifically responsive ECHO secondary-analysis project. Preferred posture: Partner-Led / Academic Research, routed to applicable state academic-health, university, and research pathways.