April 26, 2022
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Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)
The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input from the broad community regarding opportunities and challenges in health and science communication research.
Information Requested
The NIH is conducting planning activities to inform a potential Common Fund research program to support the development, assessment, and implementation of novel approaches to address health and science communication in a changing sociocultural landscape. Highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgent need for effective health communication cuts across all areas of health and disease, making this topic particularly suited for an NIH-wide research effort that aims for transformative impact. Research in this area is likely to be more impactful to the extent that it involves and considers community needs and interdisciplinary perspectives.
As part of the initial planning process, the NIH seeks to identify important research opportunities, challenges, methods, approaches, and technologies to enable the future study of health and science communication that can best be addressed through a concerted and coordinated research effort.
The NIH requests input from a broad array of interested parties, including (but not limited to) researchers, community organizations, academic institutions, professional societies, businesses, non-profit organizations, advocacy organizations, other government agencies, health services organizations, those employed by or receiving funding from NIH, and the public.
Specifically, we welcome your comments and ideas about research needs in the following domains:
1. Communication research to enhance access to, equitable uptake of, and meaningful use of evidence-based health information
2. Understanding and improving health and science literacy
3. Understanding and reducing the spread and impact of health misinformation
How to Submit a Response
All comments must be submitted electronically on the submission website. Organizations are strongly encouraged to submit a single response that reflects the views of their organization and membership as a whole.
Responses must be received by 11:59:59 pm (ET) on Friday, May 27, 2022.
Responses to this RFI are voluntary and may be submitted anonymously. Please do not include any personally identifiable information or any information that you do not wish to make public. Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should not be included in your response. The Government will use the information submitted in response to this RFI at its discretion. The Government reserves the right to use any submitted information on public websites, in reports, in summaries of the state of the science, in any possible resultant solicitations(s), grant(s), or cooperative agreement(s), or in the development of future funding opportunity announcements. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and is not a solicitation for applications or an obligation on the part of the Government to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. Please note that the Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for use of that information.
The Common Fund will hold a virtual workshop discussing research opportunities and gaps for health and science communication on May 16, 2022, from 1-4 p.m. EDT. For more information about the workshop, please go to: https://commonfund.nih.gov/healthcommresearch.
Collene Lawhorn, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Email: CFHealthCommResearch@nih.gov
Nadra Tyus, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Office of the Director (OD)
Email: CFHealthCommResearch@nih.gov
and Human Services (HHS)
