Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Virtual Resource Centers (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Key Dates

• August 23, 2022 - REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Virtual Resource Centers (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO RFA-AT-23-007. 

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Virtual Resource Centers (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). REACH virtual resource centers will foster institutional partnerships and provide resources to support research activities and research training for faculty who work at partnering U.S. domestic complementary and integrative health clinical institutions, such as: Schools of acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, naturopathy, physical therapy, and music and art therapy. The REACH virtual resource centers will provide a variety of resources including, but not limited to Administrative Support, Research Support, Grantsmanship, Mentoring and Training, and Team Building to support clinician scientists located at clinical integrative health institutions to form interdisciplinary research teams and pursue externally funded research aligned with NCCIH Strategic Priorities for health promotion and restoration, resilience, disease prevention, symptom management (e.g., pain management), and/or whole person health. REACH centers should focus on resources to support investigators pursuing clinical research (e.g., observational, epidemiological, mechanistic clinical research, mixed methods, feasibility studies, etc). It is expected that REACH virtual resource centers will (1) improve the quality and quantity of grant applications submitted by faculty at complementary and integrative health clinical institutions; (2) aid the formation of multi and interdisciplinary research partnerships across partnering integrative health clinical institutions; (3) help to enhance the research environment at integrative health clinical institutions; and (4) support a pipeline for clinician scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to pursue research careers at integrative health clinical institutions.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.     

The NOFO is expected to be published in May 2024 with an expected application due date in Summer 2024.   

This NOFO will utilize the U24 activity code. Details of the planned NOFO are provided below.   

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) recognizes a compelling need to support the development of clinician scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to pursue clinically informed research careers. Academic institutions training health care practitioners in the use of complementary approaches (i.e. complementary and integrative health clinical institutions) often lack key resources to fully support clinician scientist research careers of their faculty. The REACH Virtual Resource Centers are intended to fill that gap by fostering partnerships with accredited, academic institutions providing clinical degrees in complementary and integrative professions and by providing a wide array of research and training resources to support clinician scientist faculty at accredited complementary and integrative health clinical institutions, such as: schools of acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, naturopathy, physical therapy, music and art therapy.

Objectives

The REACH virtual resource centers will be scientific hubs that provide research and technical resources to virtually support the research environment and provide resources for faculty at partnering complementary and integrative health clinical institutions to pursue a research career. It is expected that the REACH Virtual Resource Centers program will lead to the following outcomes:

• Increase in the quality and quantity of grant applications submitted by clinician scientists at the partnering integrative health clinical institutions
• Formation of multi and interdisciplinary research partnerships across partnering integrative health clinical institutions
• Enhanced research environments at integrative health clinical institutions, thereby exposing more students to research
• A stronger pipeline for developing clinician scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to gain expertise in clinical science and to pursue research careers at integrative health clinical institutions

Scope

The REACH Virtual Resource Centers are expected to provide a range of resources for faculty at partnering complementary and integrative health clinical institutions to support the development, submission, and management of federal research grant applications (e.g., NIH, VA, DoD sources of funding). REACH centers should propose resources that would support investigators pursuing clinical research aligned with NCCIH Strategic Priorities on complementary and integrative health approaches for health promotion and restoration, resilience, disease prevention, symptom management (e.g., pain management), and/or whole person health. Approaches may include natural products, such as dietary supplements, plant-based products, and probiotics, as well as approaches with physical and/or psychological therapeutic inputs (often called mind and body interventions), such as spinal manipulation or mobilization, massage, tai chi, qi gong, yoga, acupuncture, hypnosis, guided imagery, breathing exercises, progressive relaxation, meditation, biofeedback, mindfulness techniques, or music or art therapies; and multicomponent interventions such a naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, chiropractic care, or a combination of two or more of the specific complementary health approaches. Proposed resources should support investigators utilizing clinical research designs including observational or epidemiological studies, clinical mechanistic studies, qualitative and mixed methods research, and work to develop and test clinical interventions.

Applicants for the REACH virtual resource centers should provide a strong rationale for the resources they propose based on the needs of their partnering clinical institutions and demonstrate their ability to provide expertise for the proposed resources. Applicants must propose resources in each of the following categories:

• Administrative support: Resources in this category would support administrative and technical aspects of proposal development and submission, award negotiation and acceptance, award management, and award closeout.
  • Examples include but are not limited to assistance with budget development, regulatory requirements, just in time documentation, subaward and contract negotiations, financial and technical reporting, etc.
• Research support: Resources in this category would support activities related to designing and conducting clinical research relevant to NCCIH Strategic priorities for symptom management.
  • Examples include but are not limited to access to research methods and statistical expertise, tools/technologies for data collection and analysis, computational software, specialized research materials, data cleaning and storage, central IRB services, participant recruitment and retention methods, etc.
• Grantsmanship: Resources in this category would support conceptual grant development assistance for NIH funding opportunities.
  • Examples include but are not limited to assistance with identifying funding opportunities of interest, understanding requirements of different funding mechanisms, understanding NCCIH goals and research priorities, conceptual development of the research plan, critical review of proposals including mock study section review, assistance with resubmissions, etc.
• Mentorship and Training: Resources in this category would help promote the scientific career development of faculty at partnering institutions and facilitate the pairing of clinician scientist faculty with successful scientific mentors.
  • Examples include but are not limited to formal and informal mentorship programs, soft-skills training, individual development plans, cohort-building events for mentees, specific skills-based training programs, etc.
• Team Building: Resources in this category would support the creation and sustainability of diverse, collaborative and interdisciplinary research teams.
  • Examples include but are not limited to matchmaking services to fill gaps in expertise, training in team science methods, opportunities for interdisciplinary workshops and research collaborations, etc.

The institution applying to host the REACH Center must demonstrate a strong concentration of NIH-funded investigators with expertise in complementary and integrative health research, a track-record of collaboration among participating faculty at the REACH Center, and the ability to provide expertise for all proposed resources including coordinated mentoring for complementary and integrative health research. There must be an institutional letter of support from the Dean, Provost or equivalent rank of the submitting College detailing support for and the qualifications of the institution to provide the proposed REACH Center resources.

Applications must propose to support small-scale pilot projects with potential to form the basis for subsequent independent research applications consistent with NCCIH Strategic Priorities for health promotion and restoration, resilience, disease prevention, symptom management, and/or whole person health. Applications must provide a formal plan to solicit, review, and select/prioritize requests for pilot funding, and to evaluate the pilot study progress and outcomes. Descriptions of actual pilot projects should not be included. The selection of pilot projects will be made in consultation with the NIH Project Scientist(s) and approved by the NIH Program Officer(s).

Partnerships with Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions

The proposed REACH Center should demonstrate their ability to partner with accredited, U.S. domestic complementary and integrative health clinical institutions, such as: Schools of acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, naturopathy, physical therapy, and music and art therapy. Please note that for schools of osteopathy, only those institutions that teach manual manipulation as part of the core curriculum required for all students for a doctoral degree will be considered as an eligible partnering complementary and integrative health institution.

The application must include letters of support from at least three different, accredited, complementary and integrative health clinical institutions who agree to partner with the REACH center and provide access for their faculty to the available resources, as well as plans to outreach and expand partnerships to additional institutions throughout the course of funding. The initial partnerships must demonstrate a breadth of clinical disciplines and cannot all come from a single complementary or integrative health discipline (e.g., letters of support from three schools of acupuncture would not be acceptable, but letters of support from two schools of acupuncture and one school of chiropractic would be acceptable). The letters of support must demonstrate the willingness of the partnering complementary and integrative health institutions to engage with the REACH center to support the research careers of their faculty, and must commit in kind support to provide at least 20% effort protected time for selected faculty to participate in REACH center activities for at least one year.

Funding Information

Public/State Controlled Institution of Higher Education
Private Institution of Higher Education
Nonprofit with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institution of Higher Education)
Small Business
For-Profit Organization (Other than Small Business)
State Government
Indian/Native American Tribal Government (Federally Recognized)
County governments
Independent school districts
Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
Indian/Native American Tribally Designated Organization (Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
U.S. Territory or Possession
Indian/Native American Tribal Government (Other than Federally Recognized)
Regional Organization
Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government

Applications are not being solicited at this time. 

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Lanay M. Mudd, Ph.D., FACSM
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Phone: 301-594-9346
Email: lanay.mudd@nih.gov