US National Institutes of Health – Pilot Services Research Grants Not Involving Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Optional) – PAR-18-267
Sponsor: US National Institutes of Health
Closing Date: 16-Oct-2018
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage pilot research consistent with National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) priorities for services research studies that are not immediate precursors to the development and testing of services interventions. While NIMH has moved to supporting all interventions research under FOAs that require use of an experimental therapeutics model, there is recognition that some important areas of mental health services research fall outside of that domain and have the potential to make significant contributions to advancing NIMH priorities and objectives. These areas include: 1) studies to identify mutable factors that impact access, utilization, quality, financing, outcomes including disparities in outcomes, or scalability of mental health services, which may serve as targets in future intervention development; 2) development and testing of new research tools, measures, or methods; or 3) testing the feasibility of integrating existing data sets to understand factors affecting access, quality or outcomes of care.

The goal of this FOA is to support pilot research projects with a great potential for results that will inform future studies with high public health impact. Examples of services research pilot studies that would be supported under this announcement include, but are not limited to:
• Studies to test the feasibility of integrating complex data sets to understand factors affecting access, quality, delivery, efficiency, and outcomes or disparities in outcomes of care.
• Studies to facilitate understanding of service system characteristics that facilitate or impede the delivery, coordination or integration of novel or adapted treatment, preventive or services interventions, or adjunctive services.
• Studies to develop, refine, or apply new methodological approaches in the analysis of complex and dynamic systems with the goal of demonstrating the impact of such factors on client outcomes.
• Studies to design or validate instruments to measure: changes in consumer functioning, provider practice or other relevant service intervention targets or outcomes; dissemination, implementation, or sustainability of evidence based practices; or organizational or systems variables hypothesized to contribute to delivery or outcomes of care.
• Studies that develop big data platforms and apply big data science techniques and methods to enable early detection of mental disorders across the lifespan.
• Studies to establish the feasibility of research involving the learning mental health care system model, including but not limited to: provider feedback at point of care and other strategies to improve clinical decision-making; organizational aspects to foster and sustain continuous quality improvement, strategies for embedding best-practices in care processes, etc. Pilot studies to develop and preliminarily test new payment models for coordinated service packages to treat severe mental illness with- or without comorbid conditions, or autism spectrum disorders.

Eligibility
• Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are eligible to apply.
• Applications from Foreign Organizations: Reviewers will assess whether the project presents special opportunities for furthering research programs through the use of unusual talent, resources, populations, or environmental conditions that exist in other countries and either are not readily available in the United States or augment existing U.S. resources.

Funding
• Application budgets are limited to USD $450,000 for direct costs over the R34 project period, with no more than USD $225,000 in direct costs allowed in any one year.
• The project period may not exceed 3 years.

Please see the Funding Opportunity Announcement for further information. Applications may be prepared and submitted via the NIH ASSIST system or Grants.gov. For complete instructions, you must refer to both the NIH Application Guide and the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), noting that instructions in the FOA take precedence over the Application Guide.

Key Dates
Letter of Intent (non-mandatory) due to NIH: 16 September 2018
Applications due to UQR&I: 2 October 2018
Applications close with NIH: 16 October 2018, 5:00pm local time of applicant organisation
Future application closing dates: Standard dates apply until expiry
Expiration date of FOA: 11 January 2019 (no future closing dates)

Ahead of internal review, ensure all online components on ASSIST or Grants.gov are complete. To initiate review, email your completed Funding Application Coversheet to internationalgrants@research.uq.edu.au. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make contact with the UQR&I international team (via internationalgrants@research.uq.edu.au) well in advance of the UQR&I internal deadline to discuss their application.
Website: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-18-267.html

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