November 6, 2023
Please refer to the table of eligible NOFOs in the IC-Specific Application and Submission Information section of this NOSI.
Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)
Office of AIDS Research (OAR)
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.
Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO)
Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)
The Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) and participating National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) are soliciting intervention projects to promote mental well-being and/or prevent mental health problems by fostering social, cultural, or environmental connectedness in one or more populations that experience health disparities. Mental health or mental wellness may be the primary outcome of the intervention and/or an intermediate factor to improve other health outcomes.
Key Definitions
Populations that experience Health Disparities (HD Populations): Populations defined in section 464z-3(d)(1) of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 285t(d)(1) as health disparity populations based on higher overall rates of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, or survival rates in the population as compared to the health status of the general population. NIH-designated U.S. health disparity populations currently include Black Americans and African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, underserved rural populations, sexual and gender minorities, and people living with disabilities.
Mental well-being: An individual’s ability to realize their own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, contribute to their communities, and experience positive emotions such as joy, happiness, and contentment (World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response). Mental well-being can be fostered in healthy individuals as well as in those with mental or physical illness.
Connectedness: The experience of being or feeling socially, emotionally, spiritually, or professionally linked with people, places, or things (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/connectedness).
Level of Influence: The socio-ecological levels (e.g., individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, or societal) at which specific determinants of mental wellness and mental health problems operate (see the NIMHD Research Framework, https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/overview/research-framework.html, for examples of health determinants at different levels of influence, as well as a mental health-specific framework).
Background
The U.S. is currently facing a mental health crisis that disproportionally affects populations that experience health disparities, including minoritized racial and ethnic groups, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, underserved rural populations, sexual and gender minorities, and people living with disabilities. Individuals within these populations face a host of psychosocial and structural stressors and environmental conditions that place them at elevated risk of experiencing psychological distress, developing mental health problems, and experiencing longer duration of and greater impairment from existing mental health conditions. Mental health problems, in turn, may also cause, exacerbate, or complicate the treatment of other health conditions.
In 2021, the NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) established ADVANCE (Advancing Prevention Research for Health Equity), an initiative with the objective of strengthening NIH-funded research focused on reducing health disparities through disease prevention. Mental well-being is a key priority for ADVANCE, and in collaboration with other NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, ADVANCE issued a Request for Information (RFI), NOT-OD-23-030, which solicited information on innovative approaches to prevent mental health problems and promote mental wellness in populations that experience health disparities. A key theme that emerged from the RFI responses centered around the need to foster a greater sense of belonging, meaning, and purpose by increasing connectedness (with people, culture, and activities) and decreasing isolation and loneliness. This theme is consistent with the 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Health Effects of Social Connection and Community, which calls for research to understand root causes of social disconnection and evaluate interventions to promote social connection.
Research Objectives
In response to the identified need, this ADVANCE NOSI encourages research aimed at developing, refining, and/or testing interventions and programs that promote mental well-being and/or prevent mental health problems by fostering connectedness in one or more populations that experience health disparities. The proposed research should test approaches that are both scalable and sustainable in real world contexts, either in person or online, where individuals, groups, or communities are likely to establish and maintain connections. Connectedness may take many forms, including but not limited to the examples mentioned below.
While projects may involve individual-level components to foster connectedness (e.g., education, training, experiential learning, or skill building), it is expected that interventions will also address relevant interpersonal, organizational, or community-level factors to make connections possible and sustainable (e.g., an intervention to connect youth to nature may require providing transportation to existing green spaces or development of neighborhood green spaces).
Mental well-being may be the primary outcome (e.g., an environmental connectedness intervention that aims to improve mental well-being) or an intermediate factor that is hypothesized to improve other physical or mental health outcomes (e.g., an intervention that seeks to improve mental well-being [proximal outcome] with the goal of reducing risk for the development of cardiovascular disease [distal outcome]). Projects may test new or adapted interventions, novel combinations of multiple interventions, and/or new strategies to implement evidence-based interventions.
Interventions done in collaboration with community-based organizations (e.g., patient or consumer advocacy organizations, professional societies, faith-based organizations, or neighborhood associations) or local governmental service sectors (e.g., health, public health, education, housing, labor, social services, child welfare, transportation, parks and recreation, commerce, justice, environmental protection, etc.) are strongly encouraged.
Intervention projects are expected to have the following features:
Projects are strongly encouraged to include Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) measures from the Core and Specialty collections that are available in the SDOH Collection of the PhenX Toolkit as relevant (www.phenxtoolkit.org). Inclusion of a common set of measures across studies facilitates future use of datasets for secondary analyses and a cumulative science base, consistent with the goals of the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. Other unique measures may also be included, as appropriate for the experimental questions and hypotheses.
Applications Not Responsive to the NOSI:
Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative. Applicants are strongly encouraged to reach out to the relevant Scientific/Research Contact(s) listed in the Inquiries section of this NOSI to discuss whether their applications are responsive.
Areas of Research Interest
Applicants should refer to the IC-specific research interests provided in this section to identify the most appropriate Institute or Center (IC) for their application. Investigators are strongly encouraged to reach out to the relevant Scientific/Research Contact(s) listed in the Inquiries section of this NOSI to determine whether their proposed research is suitable for the selected IC.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
NCCIH promotes research on the use of complementary and integrative health (CIH) approaches which include those that are not typically part of conventional medical care and can be classified by their primary therapeutic input, including nutritional (e.g., special diets, dietary supplements, herbs, probiotics, and microbial-based therapies), psychological (e.g., meditation, hypnosis, music-based interventions, relaxation therapies), physical (e.g., acupuncture, massage, chiropractic manipulation, other force-based manipulations, or devices related to these approaches), or a combination of psychological and physical input (e.g., yoga, tai chi, dance therapies, or some forms of art therapies).
Areas of interest to NCCIH include but are not limited to:
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
NIA supports research guided by the NIA Health Disparities Framework, which provides a guide to NIA priority areas for disparities research within four key levels of analysis environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological.
NIA expects all applicants to utilize the NIH Stage Model and the SOBC mechanism-focused, experimental medicine approach to ensure the development of efficacious, ultimately implementable interventions defined by their principles. Within the experimental medicine approach to behavior change, intervention targets may include mechanisms or processes at any level of analysis (e.g., environmental, social, contextual, interpersonal, behavioral, psychological, and/or neurobiological).
NIA specific interests include, but are not limited to:
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
The mission of the NIBIB is to transform through engineering the understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment. NIBIB interests include the development and integration of advanced bioengineering, sensing, imaging, and computational technologies for the improvement of human health and medical care. For this NOSI, NIBIB is interested in the development of tools and technologies, including imaging technologies, algorithms, point-of-care devices, and digital-health platforms, that can be used to address mental health as an initial model for technology development, but the application must clearly explain how the technology developed could have broader impact and applicability beyond mental health.
NOTE: For applications submitted to this NOSI that propose clinical trials, NIBIB will only support applications proposing early-stage clinical trials through Phase I, first-in-human, safety, feasibility, or other small clinical trials that inform the early-stage technology development in the submitted application. NIBIB will not support applications proposing Phase II, III, IV or pivotal clinical trials, or trials in which the primary outcome is efficacy, effectiveness, or a post-market concern.
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) diseases and disorders can have wide-ranging impact, from effects on an individual’s overall quality of life and mental well-being, to effects on the community and economy. Poor mental health has been linked to underutilization of dental care and unmet oral health care needs; along with financial, demographic, societal, and cultural factors, it can influence the oral health of individuals and communities and contribute to oral health inequalities [2022 NIH report on Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges]. NIDCR is interested in interventions and programs that foster social, cultural, and environmental connectedness for integrating and promoting mental well-being and DOC health in populations that experience health disparities. Areas of interest include but are not limited to:
NOTE: NIDCR will only accept applications submitted through the UG3/UH3 NOFOs listed below or their subsequent reissued equivalents.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
NIMH areas of interest are specific to applications focused on the prevention or treatment of mental illness in populations who experience health disparities, not including applications that focus on improving wellbeing or wellness.
All NIMH support for clinical trials follows an experimental therapeutics approach whereby clinical trials are designed not only to test the intervention effects on outcomes of interest, but also to inform understanding of the intervention’s mechanisms of action. As such, applications that propose to develop and/or test the effectiveness of preventative interventions must include specification of the intervention target mechanism(s) and assessment of intervention-induced changes in the target mechanism(s) that are hypothesized to account for changes in mental health outcomes.
NIMH also encourages investigators to design their studies to maximize the likelihood that findings will meaningfully inform and be translated into practice. To the greatest extent possible, such research should be conducted in community settings; involve research participants from highly generalizable target populations, including racially and ethnically diverse samples, individuals across the lifespan, and those with co-occurring conditions; and intervention providers and technologies that can be readily and widely implemented in the intended community setting.
NIMH does not accept applications for clinical trials through the NIH Parent NOFOs; NIMH support for clinical trials is limited to NIMH-specific NOFOs (see Support for Clinical Trials at NIMH). Please refer to the Application and Submission section below for NIMH NOFOs relevant to this NOSI.
Areas of interest include:
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
The mission of NIMHD is to lead scientific research to improve minority health and reduce health disparities. NIMHD is especially interested in the innovative application of community-engaged research approaches and utilization of the NIMHD Research Framework to promote mental health and distal health outcomes through developing interventions addressing multilevel aspects of connectedness among populations that experience health disparities and individuals with intersecting health disparity population membership across multiple levels of influence (i.e., individual, community, societal). NIMHD encourages intervention studies that measure and assess the underlying mechanisms of action of intervention effectiveness.
Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)
The ODP is the lead office at the NIH responsible for assessing, facilitating, and stimulating research in disease prevention. In partnership with the 27 NIH Institutes and Centers, the ODP strives to increase the scope, quality, dissemination, and impact of NIH-supported prevention research. The ODP is interested in providing co-funding support for research that has strong implications for disease and injury prevention and health equity and that includes innovative and appropriate research design, measurement, and analysis methods. For this NOSI, ODP is interested in interventions that promote connectedness at multiple levels (individual, peer/family, organizational, community) to improve mental health or other distal health outcomes. The ODP does not award grants; therefore, applications must be relevant to the objectives of at least one of the participating NIH ICs listed in this announcement. Please contact the relevant IC Scientific/Research Contact(s) listed for questions regarding IC research priorities and funding. ODP only accepts co-funding requests from NIH ICs. For additional information about ODP, please refer to the ODP Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2019 2023.
Office of AIDS Research (OAR)
The Office of AIDS Research (OAR) is part of the NIH Office of the Director and works in partnership with the NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices in its coordination of the NIH HIV Research Program and to ensure that HIV/AIDS research is aligned with the NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research. Research objectives among populations that: 1) experience health disparities as defined in this NOSI, and 2) are placed at risk for or are living with HIV, align with overarching research priorities outlined in this Strategic Plan. Intervention research to promote mental wellbeing and/or prevent mental health issues through social, cultural, and/or environmental connectedness in populations with or impacted by HIV are eligible under this NOSI. Populations include, but are not limited to, racial and ethnic minorities; sexual and gender minorities; children, adolescents, and young adults; pregnant people, and people who inject drugs.
Of note, OAR does not award nor administer grants. Therefore, applications in response to this notice must also be relevant to the objectives of at least one of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (IC). Please contact the relevant IC program contact listed for questions related to IC research priorities and funding.
Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH)
The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), which is part of the Office of the Director of NIH, works in partnership with the 27 NIH Institutes and Centers to ensure that women's health research is part of the scientific framework at the NIH, and throughout the health research community. Throughout the life course, social relationships have both short- and long-term effects on health, with those having stable enriched connections experiencing a cumulative health and longevity advantage compared to their more isolated peers. ORWH is interested in studies focused on the influence of sex and gender and other social determinants of health on wellness and disease across women’s lifespan, as well as the health of women that are understudied, underrepresented, and underreported (U3) in biomedical research. Within the focus of this announcement, the Office is open to co-funding intervention research to improve behavioral, psychosocial, and physiological health broadly among women by enhancing social ties. Studies exploring how interventions to enhance social ties impact inflammatory biomarkers of cardiovascular, digestive, and autoimmune diseases, cancers, and musculoskeletal pain conditions are particularly encouraged.
Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO)
The SGMRO coordinates research and activities related to the health and well-being of sexual and gender minority (SGM; defined for NIH research in NOT-OD-19-139) populations by working directly with the NIH ICOs and serves as a liaison for the research community to ensure SGM populations are considered and represented in research activities across the agency.
Many individuals who identify as LGBTQI+ continue to face a variety of mental health disparities and inequities, and SGMRO recognizes the urgent need for novel strategies to improve, protect, or maintain mental health specifically designed for SGM people. For this NOSI, SGMRO encourages research that focuses on fostering connectedness in members of SGM communities. The office also encourages integration of relevant concepts (e.g., stigma, minority stress, social safety, structural -isms), approaches (e.g., trauma-informed research, community-led research, qualitative research), and frameworks (e.g., NIMHD and SGMRO disparities research frameworks). Additional information about the topic of SGM family connectedness and SGMRO interest therein is discussed in the NOFO NOT-OD-23-166.
The SGMRO does not have grant-making authority and can only support grants deemed meritorious after review by one of the ICs participating in this announcement and after a co-funding request is initiated through the IC. Please reach out to the relevant Scientific/Research Contact(s) identified in this announcement with any questions about IC-specific research priorities and funding. More SGM- and SGMRO-specific information is available in the NIH Strategic Plan to Advance Research on the Health and Well-being of Sexual and Gender Minorities FYs 2021-2025 and on the Office’s Research Resources webpage.
Applicants must select the IC and associated NOFO to use for submission of an application in response to the NOSI. For submission to an IC-specific NOFO, the application must align with the IC requirements and responsiveness criteria listed in that NOFO to be considered responsive. Non-responsive applications will be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative. In addition, applicants using NIH Parent announcements will be assigned to participating ICs on this NOSI that have indicated those NOFOs are acceptable based on usual application-IC assignment practices.
Investigators are strongly encouraged to reach out to the Scientific/Research Contact(s) listed in the Inquiries section of this NOSI to determine which NOFO and activity code are appropriate for their proposed research. Participating NIH Offices may consider co-funding meritorious applications depending on the alignment with office-specific missions and priorities and the availability of funds. The following ICs will accept applications to the NOFOs below or their subsequent reissued equivalents:
NOFO | NOFO Title | First Available Due Date | Expiration Date | Participating IC(s) |
PA-20-183 | NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required) | February 5, 2024 | May 8, 2024 | NIMHD, NIBIB |
PA-20-185 | NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | February 5, 2024 | May 8, 2024 | NIBIB |
PAR-21-358 | Risk and Protective Factors of Family Health and Family Level Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | February 5, 2024 | May 8, 2025 | NIMHD |
PAR-23-111 | NIMHD Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (R21 - Clinical Trial Optional) | February 16, 2024 | May 8, 2026 | NIMHD |
PAR 21-240 | Feasibility Clinical Trials of Mind and Body Interventions for NCCIH High Priority Research Topics (R34 Clinical Trial Required) | February 20, 2024 | March 12, 2024 | NCCIH |
PAR 21-241 | NCCIH Multi-Site Feasibility Clinical Trials of Mind and Body Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required) | February 20, 2024 | March 12, 2024 | NCCIH |
PAR-21-359 | Early and Late Stage Clinical Trials for the Spectrum of Alzheimer’s Disease/Alzheimer’s Related Dementias and Age-Related Cognitive Decline (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | February 5, 2024 | January 8, 2025 | NIA |
PAR-21-307 | Dementia Care and Caregiver Support Intervention Research (R01 Clinical Trial Required) | February 13, 2024 | February 14, 2024 | NIA |
PAR-22-105 | Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health, (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | February 5, 2024 | May 8, 2025 | NIA |
Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Required) | February 15, 2024 | February 16, 2024 | NIMH | |
Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required) | February 15, 2024 | February 16, 2024 | NIMH | |
PAR-21-160 | NIDCR Clinical Trial Planning and Implementation Cooperative Agreement (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required) | February 6, 2024 | May 08, 2024 | NIDCR |
PAR-21-317 | NIDCR Behavioral and Social Intervention Clinical Trial Planning and Implementation Cooperative Agreement (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required) | February 6, 2024 | May 08, 2024 | NIDCR |
PA-20-194 | NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required) | February 16, 2024 | May 8, 2024 | NIBIB |
PA-20-195 | NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | February 16, 2024 | May 8, 2024 | NIBIB |
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the notice of funding opportunity used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:
Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.
Please direct all inquiries to the contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity with the following additions/substitutions:
Scientific/Research Contact(s)
Jennifer Alvidrez, PhD
Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)
Phone: 301-827-0071
Email:[email protected]
Beda Jean-Francois, PhD
National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Phone: 202-313-2144
Email: [email protected]
Janine M. Simmons, MD, PhD
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Division of Behavioral and Social Research (DBSR)
Phone: 301-529-7254
E-mail: [email protected]
Afrouz Azari Anderson, PhD
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
Phone: 301-496-4558
E-mail: [email protected]
William N Elwood, PhD
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Phone: 301-402-0116
E-mail: [email protected]
Mary Rooney, PhD
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Phone: 301-827-1325
Email: [email protected]
Crystal Barksdale, PhD
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Phone: 301-402-1366
E-mail: [email protected]
Paul A Gaist, PhD
Office of AIDS Research (OAR)
Phone: 301-435-7577
E-mail: [email protected]
Damiya Eve Whitaker, PsyD, MA
Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)
Phone:301-451-8206
E-mail: [email protected]
Christopher Barnhart, PhD
Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO)
Phone: 301-594-8983
Email: [email protected]
Peer Review Contact(s)
Examine your eRA Commons account for review assignment and contact information (information appears two weeks after the submission due date).
Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)
Debbie Chen
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Phone: 301-594-3788
Email: [email protected]
Ryan Blakeney
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Phone: 301-451-9802
E-mail: [email protected]
Gabriel Hidalgo, MBA
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Phone: 301-827-4630
E-mail: [email protected]
Tamara Kees
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Phone: 301-443-8811
Email: [email protected]
Priscilla Grant
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Phone: 301-594-8412
E-mail: [email protected]