Applications open for Advancing the Science of Engagement in Research Grant Program

Deadline: 13-May-25

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is inviting applications for its Advancing the Science of Engagement in Research Grant Program to fund studies that address high-priority gaps in the science of engagement in research focused on development and/or assessment of validity of measures and the evaluation of engagement methods.

Priority Areas

Measuring Engagement in Research: The first priority and goal of this funding opportunity is to develop reliable and valid measures that enable future patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research of engagement methods.
Priorities:
- Consistent with the Donabedian Structure/Context-Process-Outcomes framework, measurement research projects may touch on one or more elements of the framework. Applicants are not limited to the Donabedian model and may also draw on other relevant frameworks with appropriate justification:
  - Structure/Context: Measures that assess key contextual factors that may influence the conduct of engagement and/or the outcomes of engagement. Priorities include barriers and facilitators to engagement, and capacity and readiness for engagement.
  - Process: Measures that assess aspects of how engagement is planned, conducted, or sustained. Priorities include measures to systematically describe activities and structures by which patients and stakeholders were engaged and the level of engagement achieved at various stages of the work.
  - Outcomes: Measures that assess the outcomes that result from engagement in research. Priorities include patient-centeredness of studies, perceptions of relevance and trustworthiness of findings for end users, and ability to recruit and retain representative research study participants.
Developing and Testing Engagement Methods in Research: The second priority of this funding opportunity is to support research projects that evaluate the impact of various engagement methods on key processes and outcomes of engagement and research.
Priorities:
- Which engagement methods work in what settings, and how do they do so?
- Which engagement methods result in high-quality engagement?
- How do engagement methods need to be adapted to be effective for different stakeholder and patient populations?
- Which engagement methods achieve the goals of making research more patient-centered, timely, relevant to patient concerns, and trustworthy, or other outcomes or constructs if well justified, and how do they achieve these goals?

Funding Information

Funds Available up to Approximately: $36 million
Category 1: Development and/or assessment of validity of measures to capture structure/context, process, and outcomes of engagement in research:
- Less than or equal to $1 million in direct costs
Category 2: Development and/or testing of engagement methods to generate evidence on the most effective approaches for engagement in research and how effectiveness varies by context:
- Less than or equal to $1.5 million in direct costs
Duration:
- Category 1: 2 years
- Category 2: 3 years

Eligibility Criteria

In general, applications for the conduct of research and management of funding may be submitted by appropriate academic research, private sector research, or study-conducting entities. This may include, among others, agencies and instrumentalities of the federal government, nonprofit and for profit research organizations, and colleges and universities.
Foreign organizations and nondomestic components of U.S. organizations must provide a thorough and thoughtful justification for the research’s ability to benefit the U.S. health care system and must show that the engagement plans include U.S. patients and stakeholders and are relevant to the U.S. health care system.

Ineligibility Criteria

Individuals are not permitted to apply.

For more information, visit PCORI.