RFA-ES-25-002: Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers Program (P30 Clinical Trials Optional)
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences invites U.S. applicants to propose Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers through the P30 mechanism. The next listed application due date is April 20, 2027.
RFA-ES-25-002: Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers Program (P30 Clinical Trials Optional)
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), uses this P30 Center Core Grant to support Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHSCCs). The center model is intended for an institution with an established environmental health research base, not for a single investigator proposing one independent project. A successful center brings together investigators, shared facilities, services, training, community engagement, and translational research around a coherent strategic vision.
The 2026 receipt date has passed. The official notice still lists a next application due date of April 20, 2027, so this page remains a live planning reference rather than a historical archive entry. Applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization, and the notice says that late applications will not be accepted. The official notice also lists an expiration date of April 21, 2027. The 2027 application is scheduled for scientific merit review in November 2027, advisory council review in January 2028, and an earliest start date in April 2028.
Verified program details
| Field | Official detail |
|---|---|
| Funding opportunity | RFA-ES-25-002, Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers Program |
| Mechanism | P30 Center Core Grant |
| Sponsor | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health |
| Next listed application due date | April 20, 2027, by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization |
| Review and start sequence | November 2027 scientific merit review; January 2028 advisory council review; April 2028 earliest start date |
| Funding plan | NIEHS intends to commit $6.0 million in FY 2026 for up to four awards |
| Direct-cost limit | Up to $850,000 per year for new or first-time applicants; up to $1.0 million per year for renewals |
| Project period | Up to four years for new or first-time applicants; up to five years for renewals |
| Clinical trials | Optional: applications may propose clinical trials or may not propose them |
| Submission routes | NIH ASSIST or an institutional system-to-system solution to Grants.gov, with eRA Commons tracking |
| Official source | NIH RFA-ES-25-002 |
What the center is meant to do
NIEHS describes an EHSCC as an intellectual hub for environmental health science. The center provides research infrastructure, shared facilities, services, and resources to groups of investigators whose independently funded or collaborative research addresses environmental exposures and health. The purpose is to make existing research more effective, extend its reach, develop new directions, and support connections across disciplines.
The notice expects a center to connect environmental exposures, human biology, disease, and public health. It also identifies community engagement and translational research as key activities. This means the application should explain how the center will move knowledge between basic, mechanistic, toxicological, population, clinical, and public-health work where those links fit the center’s mission. It should also explain how communities and other target audiences will participate in a two-way relationship with the center, rather than being treated only as recipients of finished research messages.
The program has a capacity-building purpose as well. The official goals include strengthening existing environmental health programs, building scientific and programmatic capacity, recruiting and preparing future leaders, developing novel research directions, and supporting community engagement. A proposal therefore needs to show what the institution can already do and how the center structure will make that capability more coordinated, productive, and responsive.
Eligibility and the research-base test
The applicant must be a domestic U.S. entity in an eligible organization category. The notice lists public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; small businesses and other for-profit organizations; state, county, city, township, special-district, tribal, and other eligible local governments; eligible federal agencies; U.S. territories or possessions; independent school districts; public or Indian housing authorities; Native American tribal organizations; faith-based or community-based organizations; and regional organizations.
The most important fit test is the existing research base. At submission, the institution must demonstrate that at least four Center members have combined qualifying grant funding of at least $3 million per year in direct costs. Each qualifying award must have at least one full active year remaining at the time of submission. The projects must be focused on environmental health sciences, related to the NIEHS mission and the 2025-2029 NIEHS Strategic Plan, and address environmental exposures and health. The research base can combine NIH, other federal, and private awards, including eligible career-development awards, but at least 50% must come from NIH.
The notice names examples of NIH mechanisms that may count, including DP, R, P, U, K, and F series awards, subject to the detailed eligibility rules. T awards, U45 awards, conference awards such as R13 and U13, grants in extension periods, and supplements do not count toward the stated research-base requirement. A prospective applicant should build the required grant-support table from the notice’s rules rather than count every award visible in an institutional portfolio.
Foreign organizations and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. Foreign components, as defined by NIH policy, are allowed. That distinction matters for a U.S. applicant with an international collaboration: the applicant and the relevant organizational component must satisfy the domestic-entity rule, while a permitted foreign component still has to follow NIH policy.
Only one application per institution is allowed, normally identified by a unique entity identifier or NIH institutional profile number. Teams should resolve internal overlap before submission and should not assume that separate departments can submit independent versions of the same center application.
Budget and project design
NIEHS states an intent to commit $6.0 million in FY 2026 for up to four awards. The direct-cost ceiling is $850,000 per year for a new or first-time applicant and $1.0 million per year for a renewal. New or first-time applicants may request up to four years of support; renewal applications may request up to five years. These are limits, not promises of an award or a recommendation to request the maximum.
The required application is multi-component. It includes an Overall component, an Administrative Core, a Translational Research Support Core, at least one and no more than three Facility Cores, a Community Engagement Core, and a Pilot Project component. The notice gives a 12-page limit for the Overall, Administrative Core, Translational Research Support Core, each Facility Core, and the Community Engagement Core. The Pilot Project component has a six-page limit. The application should make the components work together: the strategic vision should set priorities, the cores should provide the services and relationships needed to carry them out, and the pilot program should address gaps that matter to the center’s scientific focus and community priorities.
The Overall component must describe the center’s strategic vision, translational research vision, environmental health identity, and the impact of its research base. It should identify the center theme, goals, expected scientific and public-health outcomes, existing skills and technologies, communication expertise, and the way the center advances NIEHS priorities. The notice also calls for an organizational chart showing structure, interactions, and leadership.
The Administrative Core is responsible for coordination, budgeting, reporting, leadership, membership, advisory groups, meetings, and measures of success. A credible plan should show who makes decisions, how members are recruited and evaluated, how leadership continuity will be handled, and how the center will record use of cores, publications, pilot awards, new applications, and other outcomes.
The Translational Research Support Core should provide services that connect fundamental science, public-health research, epidemiology, intervention studies, and patient-oriented clinical research when appropriate to the center. Facility Cores must be justified by the needs of independently funded Center investigators. The notice gives examples such as imaging, pathology, biostatistics, analytical chemistry, proteomics, bioinformatics, exposure assessment, and human-tissue services, but the proposed cores must be relevant to the institution’s actual research base and should not simply duplicate available institutional or commercial services.
The Community Engagement Core must be integrated with the center theme and must define audiences, objectives, activities, communication processes, and measures of impact. The Pilot Project Program must explain how funds will be reviewed and distributed, how projects will address important environmental health questions, and how it can respond to research gaps or community-identified concerns.
Application steps
Start by confirming the research-base calculation and the one-application-per-institution rule. Then identify the Center director or multi-PI leadership, define the environmental health theme, map the membership and qualifying awards, and agree on the cores the institution can support. The proposal should be built as one center plan, not as unrelated core descriptions assembled at the end.
The applicant organization must maintain the registrations required by NIH, including an active SAM registration, Grants.gov registration, and eRA Commons registration. Registration must be complete before submission; the notice warns that registration can take six weeks or more and that an incomplete registration is not a valid reason for a late submission. Each PD/PI must have an eRA Commons account, and a person serving as both signing official and PD/PI needs separate accounts for those roles.
Prepare the application in NIH ASSIST or through an institutional system-to-system solution. Follow the NIH Multi-Project (M) application instructions and the program-specific instructions in RFA-ES-25-002. Assemble the Overall, Administrative Core, Translational Research Support Core, Facility Core or Cores, Community Engagement Core, and Pilot Project components; include the required grant-support and Center-member attachments; and address human-subjects, clinical-trial, resource-sharing, and data-management requirements when they apply.
Submit through the selected electronic route early enough to identify and correct errors. Track the submission in eRA Commons, and make sure any corrected or changed application is successfully submitted by the due time. The official deadline is April 20, 2027, at 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. The notice expressly says that late applications will not be accepted, so an applicant should not plan around a grace period.
Review and fit
Reviewers will assess the overall strategic vision, significance, investigators, innovation, approach, and environment, along with the center’s ability to integrate its parts. The additional criteria are practical as well as scientific: administrative structure, recruitment and support of new investigators, cross-disciplinary development, advisory committees, translational services, facility utility and cost-effectiveness, community partnerships, transparent communication, and the feasibility and purpose of pilot-project funding.
A strong application will make the $3 million research base visible, explain why each core is needed, connect the center theme to environmental health and public health, and give reviewers measurable ways to judge progress. A weak fit is an application that reads like one large R01, lists facilities without demonstrating demand, or names community engagement without a defined partner role and feedback process. The mechanism can support applications with or without clinical trials, but the clinical-trial choice should follow the proposed work and the NIH definition rather than being added to make the proposal appear broader.
This record should be used for planning the announced 2027 round. The 2026 receipt date is a completed milestone, while April 20, 2027 remains the next listed date in the official NIH notice. Check the official notice and the applicant institution’s grants office before submission because NIH instructions, registration status, and application systems control the final submission process.