Deadline: 1 April 2020
The Engagement Award Program is now accepting Letters of Inquiry for Engagement Award: Capacity Building, a research support—not research—funding opportunity, for projects up to two years in duration, and up to $250,000 in total costs.
The Eugene Washington Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Awards support projects that encourage active integration of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders as integral members of the patientcentered outcomes research/clinical effectiveness research (PCOR/CER) enterprise.
The Engagement Award: Capacity Building aims to support projects that help communities increase their facility with and ability to participate across all phases of the patient-centered outcomes research and comparative clinical effectiveness research (PCOR/CER) process.
Funding Information
For the April 2020 Engagement Awards Funding Cycle, the contract start date should be planned for no earlier than November 1, 2020.
Funding Priorities
This funding announcement offers an opportunity for organizations and community groups to continue to build capacity/skills for patient-centered outcomes research and comparative clinical effectiveness research (PCOR/CER) as well as evaluate implementation and effectiveness within different settings and stakeholder groups.
Examples of projects of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Projects that support organizations with strong ties to patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders to equip them to engage as partners in PCOR/CER. These projects will focus on building the knowledge, competencies, and abilities of their community to be meaningful partners in research from topic selection through design and conduct of research to dissemination or implementation of results.
- Projects that strengthen the skills of researchers to be better partners to patients and other stakeholders involved in PCOR/CER.
- Applicants must clearly explain how the capacity that is developed through an award will be applied to existing or planned PCOR/CER partnership opportunities
- Projects that support the use or adoption of available engagement tools/resources whenever possible, rather than develop new products and tools.
- If this project is using a PCORI-funded engagement tool/resource, applicants should identify the preexisting engagement tool/resource that this project will be scaling up or adopting by listing the: (a) Tool Name, (b) Project Title, (c) Project Lead Name, (d) URL to project page.
- Applicants can identify and describe any tools/trainings/programs that will be used as part of the project, as well as share the evidence base for the resources that will be used.
- Projects that support organizations with strong ties to end-user audiences to lay the groundwork for disseminating and implementing PCOR/CER results. PCORI intends for these projects to focus on strengthening the infrastructure and relationships necessary to actively disseminate and implement research results or products derived from PCORI or related studies. Project activities may include developing, demonstrating, and evaluating the processes/pathways/tools necessary to incorporate PCOR/CER results into decision-making settings.
- For these types of projects, applicants must identify existing or emerging PCOR/CER findings highly relevant to their target population. Research results should also be placed within the context of the existing body of evidence in the topic area identified.
- Applicants must clearly explain how the infrastructure and relationships developed to disseminate and implement PCOR/CER could be sustained over time. Additionally, applicants should indicate whether the project may have the potential to be scaled to reach an even greater audience or if it could be a vehicle for disseminating and implementing additional PCOR/CER findings.
- Projects that implement available tools, processes, or programs, alone or in combination, in a new population or geographic area—for example, a new network of clinicians, patient advocates, and academic researchers—who will work together to ask and then answer PCOR/CER questions.
- PCORI expects that projects selected for an Engagement Award will further PCORI’s goals of promoting the relevance of research to target audiences and the uptake of research results by end users. They are committed to using and sharing successful approaches.
- The information and tools generated by Engagement Award projects must be generalizable; they must be of interest or use not just to the applicant organizations but to others doing related work. The tools and information will be made public so they can have a broader impact.
Eligibility Criteria
- PCORI accepts applications from any private or public-sector organization, including any non-profit or for-profit organization or any unit of local, state, or federal government, including any:
- Nonprofit organization
- For-profit organization
- Laboratory or manufacturer
- University or college
- Hospital or healthcare system
- Unit of local, state, and federal government
- For Engagement Awards: Dissemination Initiative PCORI especially encourages applications from organizations and communities who are trusted sources of information for the people they have relationships with. As a reminder, PCORI’s stakeholders include:
- Patients/caregivers
- Clinicians
- Researchers
- Purchasers
- Payers
- Industry
- Hospitals and Health Systems
- Policy Makers
- Training Institutions
- Foreign organizations may apply, but their application should clearly demonstrate the benefits of their research to the US healthcare system, US residents, and US patient-centered research. Foreign organizations should enter 999-99-9999 in the EIN field in the online letter of intent (LOI)/application.
Project Evaluation
- Applicants must include a completed Evaluation Reporting Tool as a deliverable at the end of the project period. The Evaluation Reporting Tool provides a template to collect information about Engagement Awards that can help with evaluation of their portfolio, as well as evaluation of individual projects.
- This reporting tool should be taken into consideration during proposal development and uploaded at the end of the project period with the Final Deliverable Milestone. Awardees may use a different evaluation framework if there is one that is more aligned with their project proposal, subject to PCORI approval. Applicants adopting such an approach must identify the proposed alternate evaluation framework in their application.
- The goal of this reporting tool is to ensure a standard set of reported information for Engagement Awards. Given the difficulty in applying metrics and a standard set of indicators around engagement best practices, this tool provides a baseline of outcomes to report on in Engagement Award projects.
- At a minimum, evaluation plans should document the reach (in absolute numbers) of the engagement effort among the targeted end users and settings.
Submitting a Successful Applications
Successful applications will include:
- Rationale that there is a need for additional patient and/or stakeholder capacity to participate in PCOR/CER with a clear and direct link to participation in research opportunities.
- Commitment from the patient and/or stakeholder communities to be involved in the project, and clear patient and/or stakeholder involvement/leadership in all stages of the project from LOI development to dissemination of project results.
- The potential impact of the proposed project.
- Evaluation metrics for assessing the success of engagement strategies.
- Plans for sustainability after the project period has ended. Future funding from PCORI should not be assumed. If the project does not lend itself to sustained activities after the project period concludes, provide justification.
- The organization’s relationship to the population and/or context, and track record in engagement.
- If using or adopting a PCORI-funded engagement tool or resource:
- Description of the engagement tool(s) or resource(s) selected and justification for its continued and expanded use. Information about prior use/implementation of the tool(s) or resource(s), including any data on its effectiveness to build capacity for patient and stakeholder engagement in PCOR/CER should be provided.
- Approval to use and, if applicable, adapt tool(s) and resource(s) from the relevant copyright owner of the tool(s) and/or resource(s) in the form of a written letter of support. This will typically be from the awardee institution of the original PCOR Award project team. The relevant owner must grant the applicant rights to the engagement tool(s)/resource(s) sufficient to carry out the project.
How to Apply
Interested applicants can apply online via given website.
For more information, visit https://www.pcori.org/funding-opportunities/announcement/engagement-award-capacity-building