NIH offers Grants to Implement Research on Noncommunicable Disease

NIH offers Grants to Implement Research on Noncommunicable Disease

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) participating Institutes and Centers (ICs), in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), invite applications for implementation research focused on addressing risk factors for common noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in World Bank-defined low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Tribal Nation populations in the United States.

Purposes

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports innovative approaches to identifying, understanding, developing, and implementing strategies for overcoming barriers to the adoption, adaptation, integration, scale-up, and sustainability of evidence-based interventions, tools, policies, and guidelines.

In addition, studies to advance dissemination and implementation research methods and measures into application are encouraged. Specifically, this FOA invites applications that propose implementation research targeted to reducing the risks of NCDs in the context of cities in LMICs and/or among AI/AN Tribal Nation populations in cities in the United States, with the potential to equip policymakers and practitioners with evidence-based strategies for prevention and/or management of NCDs among disadvantaged populations globally. In the context of this FOA, "cities" include urban centers, informal settlements and slums, and periurban areas.

This FOA uses the bi-phasic, milestone driven R61/R33 grant mechanism. Awards made under this FOA will initially support a one-year milestone-driven initiation (R61) phase, with possible transition to an implementation (R33) phase of up to four additional years. Only projects that meet the scientific milestones and award requirements of the R61 phase may transition to the R33 phase. Applications submitted in response to this FOA must address both the R61 and R33 phases.

Objectives

Responsive applications will:

Select one or more city/ies in which the research will be conducted and justify why a particular context is considered a city;

Select one or more evidence-based interventions known to reduce NCD risk factor(s) associated with city environments, justify the choice of intervention(s), and provide evidence of the intervention’s effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility, and potential for long-term health and other impacts;

Adapt intervention(s) for selected study population(s) based in one or more city/ies, taking into account the unique social, political, economic, and cultural context(s) while also justifying why these adaptations will not compromise the known effectiveness of the selected intervention(s);

Provide a research plan for investigating how to promote the uptake and/or scale-up of the intervention(s) in the selected study population(s), using validated implementation research frameworks;

Specifically address issues of equitable implementation to ensure interventions reach the populations that need them the most;

Address health equity, defined by the WHO as the absence of unfair, avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically or by other dimensions of inequality (e.g. sex, gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation);

Address social determinants of NCDs in the relevant populations and assess culturally-tailored intervention strategies, including, for instance, studies that integrate tribal ecological knowledge (TEK) in AI/AN communities;

Have an appropriate strategy for measuring implementation research outcomes and potentially real-world effectiveness outcomes and indicators (related to NCD prevention and, if feasible, planetary health and/or non-health sectors), including stakeholder-relevant outcomes (e.g., functioning, health services use, and others);

Demonstrate a commitment to stakeholder and community engagement;

Provide opportunities for implementation research capacity building within

project teams;

Demonstrate a commitment to reducing the research team’s ecological footprint with the proposed intervention, implementation strategies and research practices; and

Demonstrate equitable partnerships and shared leadership between high-income country (HIC)/LMIC and/or non-Tribal Nation/Tribal Nation members of the project team, and between the project team and external stakeholders, including written letters of support from these groups and associated Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), as appropriate.

In addition, applicants are encouraged (though not required) to:

Explore themes of planetary health and/or climate and health in the context of their projects, investigating how to best implement intervention(s) known to positively impact both human and ecological health and/or improve human resilience to the health impacts of climate change in city environments;

Conduct implementation research on multisectoral interventions that cut across health, environmental, social, employment, housing, and/or other sectors;

Explore the generalizability of implementation strategies by conducting studies in two or more cities, with adequate descriptions of city characteristics (e.g., built environment vs. informal settlements, population, sociodemographic diversity, etc.);

Focus on at-risk populations, such as individuals or communities living in informal settlements, urban post-disaster settings, or in situations of homelessness; and

Explore how to best implement digital technology interventions.

Expected Impacts

The projects funded in response to this FOA will collectively:

Contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one third by 2030;

Reduce health inequities linked to socioeconomic status, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, age, and other social and structural factors within the context of cities;

Provide cities globally with evidence-based strategies and tools for promoting population health in equitable and environmentally sustainable ways, enabling cities to better address the challenges of rapid urbanization, growing social inequalities, and climate change;

Advance local, regional, or national preventative health policies addressing common risk factors for NCDs;

Provide evidence and recommendations to national programs and policies;

Inform health service providers, policy, and/or other decision makers on the effective adaptation and/or scaling up of interventions at in the context of cities;

Improve local capacity for implementation research, data harmonization, and stakeholder engagement for management and prevention of common NCD risk factors; and

Improve capacity for implementation research.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible Applicants:

Others

City or township governments

For profit organizations other than small businesses

Public and State controlled institutions of higher education

County governments

Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education

Small businesses

Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)

Special district governments

Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities

Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education

Independent school districts

Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
State governments

Private institutions of higher education

Other Eligible Applicants include the following:

Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs); Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government; Faith-based or Community-based Organizations; Hispanic-serving Institutions;

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized); Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations);

Regional Organizations; Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs) ; U.S. Territory or Possession.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; NIH offers Grants to Implement Research on Noncommunicable Disease