The AVIC program offers academic institutions working in veterinary drug development and food safety an avenue for sustained, federally supported collaboration with CVM.
On May 4, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) opened a new round of grant funding for its Animal and Veterinary Innovation Centers (AVICs) program via a notice of funding opportunity, with applications due June 12, 2026. The AVICs program promotes the broader animal and veterinary innovation agenda, through which FDA has outlined its strategy for tackling unmet needs impacting animal and human health. CVM anticipates awarding up to five grants this cycle, each renewable for up to four years depending on progress and the availability of funds. Applicants should consult the notice of funding opportunity for specific information on anticipated award amounts and budget ceilings. Interested applicants must submit through the NIH ASSIST system or grants.gov.
Background
AVICs are research collaborations between CVM and academic institutions that tackle pressing challenges in animal, human and environmental health that align with CVM’s regulatory priorities. CVM launched the program in 2024 to encourage product innovation and strengthen the pipeline of veterinary interventions. The overarching aim is a working partnership with FDA that yields tangible outcomes: e.g., clearing regulatory science hurdles that slow product development or catalyzing investment in therapeutic areas where commercial incentives alone have proven insufficient. Under its inaugural notice of funding opportunity, issued in June 2024, CVM funded cooperative agreements focused on three research domains: highly pathogenic avian influenza, intentional genomic alterations in animals and drugs for minor species and minor uses in major species. Those initial awards run for five years, with annual noncompetitive renewals at a flat funding rate. Notably, this cycle’s awards are renewable for up to four years, which is a shorter term than the initial five-year awards, so applicants should factor into their project planning and scope.
FY2026 Priority Research Areas
This year’s notice of funding opportunity identifies four research themes for applicants:
Aquaculture
CVM seeks research that can facilitate the approval of drugs for use in aquaculture, with a preference for proposals that bring in outside collaborators—such as veterinary groups, species-specific associations and government agencies—to help overcome longstanding obstacles to drug availability in this sector. High-priority topics include residue depletion studies in freshwater and saltwater finfish, metabolism research and target animal safety evaluations. CVM is also interested in proposals addressing aquaculture-specific environmental questions, including the development of tools and new alternative methods for conducting environmental exposure assessments related to aquaculture drug use.
Minor Ruminant Species
CVM seeks research—whether focused on regulatory science or direct product development—that can help bring new drugs to market for sheep, goats, bison and other minor ruminant species. Proposals that pair scientific work with the formation of external partnerships to address the unique development and approval challenges in these species are especially encouraged.
Human Food Safety for Minor Species Drugs
This category targets the scientific underpinnings of food safety evaluation for veterinary drugs used in minor food-producing species, as well as minor uses in major food-producing species. CVM wants proposals that pioneer new regulatory science methodologies to close existing data gaps in food safety assessments, particularly through collaborations with veterinary, governmental and industry partners. Examples of relevant work include modernizing approaches to residue method validation, developing cross-species data-bridging techniques and improving models of how drugs are metabolized and depleted in minor species destined for human consumption.
Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship
CVM seeks multiyear proposals aimed at deepening the evidence base on how antimicrobials are used in veterinary settings, with the goal of equipping practitioners with better data to guide prescribing decisions consistent with FDA’s judicious-use policies. Collaborative models—bringing together veterinary associations, state regulators and agricultural organizations, and using innovative data-collection frameworks such as data trusts or formal data-use agreements—are preferred. Specific areas of interest include building infrastructure for sustained antimicrobial use data collection at the national level (including repositories or dashboards), generating standardized trend analyses, making findings accessible through peer-reviewed publications or public-facing platforms and producing practical scientific resources for veterinarians in clinical practice.
Application Details
Eligibility extends to a range of entities active in the life sciences and animal health sectors, including research universities, veterinary colleges, nonprofit research organizations and potentially industry partners; applicants should confirm their eligibility under the notice of funding opportunity. CVM will accept both short-term (one-to-two-year scope) and long-term (four-to-five-year scope) applications, and encourages applications that include partners or road maps of how research will be translated into results. Applications must be submitted by June 12, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern through the NIH ASSIST system or grants.gov. Late applications will not be accepted. Contact AVIC@fda.hhs.gov with any inquiries.
Implications for the Agriculture and Animal Health Industry
The AVIC program offers academic institutions working in veterinary drug development and food safety an avenue for sustained, federally supported collaboration with CVM. This year’s funding priorities should be of particular interest to stakeholders in the aquaculture, small ruminant and antimicrobial stewardship spaces—sectors where limited drug availability and gaps in regulatory science remain persistent challenges. CVM’s repeated emphasis on external partnerships signals that competitive proposals will likely need to demonstrate broad stakeholder buy-in and a credible plan for converting research findings into real-world regulatory or commercial impact. Industry partners (including veterinary pharmaceutical companies, aquaculture producers and agricultural organizations) should evaluate whether opportunities exist to participate as collaborators, co-investigators or sub-awardees on academic-led proposals. Institutions considering an application should note that the required federal registrations (SAM, eRA Commons, grants.gov) can take several weeks to complete and should be initiated well in advance of the June 12 deadline.
For More Information
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