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Interventions to Prevent Unintentional Injury
When beginning your next investigator-initiated application, consider the following NIH highlighted topic. The area of science described below is of interest to the listed NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs). This is not a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO).
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Topic Description
Post Date: September 16, 2026
Expiration Date: September 16, 2028
Background
Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children and the 3rd leading cause of death in the general US population. Furthermore, there are pronounced disparities in unintentional injury incidence, morbidity, and mortality among different sociodemographic groups.
Interventions aimed at preventing unintentional injuries have often focused on increasing awareness about injury risks and individual behavior change. Existing evidence suggests that educational strategies are unlikely to be effective in reducing injury incidence or disparities if relevant social or environmental factors are not addressed. Given the longstanding burden of unintentional injury and injury disparities in the US, preventive interventions are needed that address injury risk and protective factors at multiple socioecological levels (individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, societal).
Research Objectives
This topic encourages research applications to develop or adapt and test the effectiveness of unintentional injury prevention interventions, particularly for populations with elevated injury risk. Dissemination and implementation research is also encouraged. Of specific interest are projects focused on unintentional injuries associated with the highest morbidity and mortality, including motor vehicle/traffic-related injuries, falls, drowning, poisonings, and burns. Also of interest are injuries that occur in contexts with pronounced disparities (e.g., high-risk workplaces, youth sports, residential or healthcare facilities).
Interventions may involve universal prevention strategies or targeted interventions that focus on groups of people at elevated risk for injuries or their sequelae (e.g., children, older adults, and people with disabilities, certain chronic diseases, or substance use disorders).
Projects are encouraged that
- Test interventions that address risk or protective factors for unintentional injury at one or more socioecological levels (individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, societal), and do not rely solely on increasing individual awareness about injury risks.
- Are sufficiently powered to assess intervention impacts in one or more populations at elevated risk of injury and/or on the reduction of injury-related disparities within a population or setting.
- Are guided by a conceptual model identifying the hypothesized mechanism(s) through which the preventive intervention reduces the incidence or severity of unintentional injuries. These hypothesized mechanisms should be explicitly measured.
- Account for the expected correlation in outcomes among members of the same cluster (e.g., school, nursing home, neighborhood).
- Reflect collaborations between researchers and relevant service providers (healthcare organizations, public health departments, occupational safety organizations, school systems, etc.)
- Obtain input from intended populations or recipients (e.g., youth, older adults, workers, athletes, etc.).
Participating ICOs
For this topic, ODP is particularly interested in projects testing multi-level preventive interventions, including multi-site or cluster randomized clinical trials.
Anna Kharmats
[email protected]
NIA is interested in research that affects community-dwelling midlife and older adults seeking to age in place as well as those in healthcare facilities. Areas of interest include but are not limited to:
- Pedestrian, workplace and motor vehicle related injuries
- Medication misuse in adults with and without Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) and the impact on decision-making, activities of daily living, and instrumental activities of daily living such as driving
- Optimizing medications as a patient-centered, safety-focused intervention
- Interventions focused on care team workflows and care transitions to reduce fall-related injuries
- Etiology, trajectories, risk factors, and resilience mechanisms related to traumatic brain injury as a contributor to AD/ADRD
- Technology interventions using clinical decision support and risk stratification tools, gait analyses, and other digital monitoring systems to examine injury risk and protective factors
Lyndon Joseph, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Erin Harrell, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Rebekah Feng, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Alcohol-attributable injuries significantly contribute to ill-health, disability, and premature death annually. Emergency departments and multiple types of care systems are heavily burdened by alcohol-related cases. NIAAA seeks implementation research focused on multilevel interventions to mitigate these injuries. Of particular interest are studies examining alcohol-related unintentional injuries with high morbidity and mortality, which result from and go beyond motor vehicle accidents, for example: falls, drowning, poisonings, and burns. Applications may utilize mixed methods and data-driven technologies in clinical/structural interventions or apply cognitive behavioral techniques.
ICO Scientific Contact:Sarika Parasuraman, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Miya Whitaker, Psy.D.
[email protected]
NIAMS is interested in clinical trials on unintentional injuries related to our mission areas (arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases). NIAMS only supports clinical trials through NIAMS-specific clinical trial funding opportunities.
ICO Scientific Contact:Charles Washabaugh, Ph.D.
[email protected]
NICHD invites research applications that address the leading causes of child unintentional injury, including but not limited to, motor vehicle-related injuries, drowning, falls, burns, poisoning, and dog bites. The NICHD has a particular interest in science that aims to develop and test new interventions, or adapt existing interventions, to prevent these unintentional injury causes among individuals who are children, pregnant, or have physical and/or intellectual disabilities.
NICHD’s participation reflects scientific interest in this area and mission relevance but does not indicate the availability of dedicated funds. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact a NICHD program official prior to submission.
ICO Scientific Contact:Cinnamon Dixon, DO, MPH
[email protected]
Tracy King, MD, MPH
[email protected]
NIDCR is interested in research related to unintentional injuries that affect dental, oral and craniofacial (DOC) health, including but not limited to:
- Testing rigorous approaches to prevent craniofacial, alveolar and dental fractures, concussion, luxation, subluxation, or avulsions, or soft tissue trauma in high-risk groups, e.g., elderly, pregnant women, children, adolescents, home-bound or institutionalized individuals with cognitive or physical impairment.
- Comparing interventions to reduce unintentional injuries, including drug overdoses, in dental settings.
- Strengthening workflows and standards for prevention, rapid detection, early treatment, and referral of traumatic DOC injuries in settings with limited treatment options, e.g., schools, nursing homes or urgent care/emergency rooms.
Lorena Baccaglini, DDS, MS, PhD
[email protected]
Dena Fischer, DDS, MSD, MS
[email protected]
Margaret Grisius, DDS
[email protected]
NIMHD encourages research addressing health disparities and advancing unintentional injury prevention among populations experiencing health disparities. Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Community-based interventions targeting populations experiencing high rates of unintentional injuries (e.g., falls in older adults, drowning in low-income/rural communities, worker injuries).
- Implementation science models adopting evidence-based injury prevention strategies in limited resource settings.
- Culturally tailored injury prevention programs co-designed with specific populations.
- Testing efficacy of strategies to reduce and prevent unintentional injury among populations experiencing economic and healthcare barriers.
- Evaluating injury reduction interventions (e.g., motor vehicle injuries in rural populations).
NIMHD Division of Community Health and Population Science
[email protected]
NINR supports research to prevent unintentional injury for individuals across the lifespan. NINR emphasizes solutions-oriented research that addresses the conditions of people's lives and that is informed by and developed with communities. NINR supports research aligned with our mission and strategic priorities conducted by scientists from any discipline.
Areas of interest for this topic include but are not limited to:
- Community-engaged interventions that consider and address conditions of daily life (the conditions in which people are born, grow, learn, work, play, live, and age) to prevent unintentional injuries
- Interventions that leverage advances in AI to enhance injury prevention in populations with disparate rates of unintentional injury
- Interventions that integrate injury prevention into interprofessional models of care in community-based primary care or school settings.
Julia Seay, Ph.D.
[email protected]
OBSSR is interested in research applications to develop or adapt and test the effectiveness of behavioral and social unintentional injury prevention interventions, particularly for populations with elevated injury risk.
Sheila Caldwell, PhD
[email protected]
Christopher Barnhart, PhD
[email protected]
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