Key Dates

Related Announcements

• December 5, 2025 - Notice to Extend the Response Date for Request for Information (RFI) on the Need to Expand Epidemiological Research at NIAMS. See Notice NOT-AR-25-021.

Issued by

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

Purpose

Background 

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) is committed to supporting research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of arthritis, musculoskeletal, and skin diseases. In addition to research support, NIAMS emphasizes the training of scientists in both basic and clinical settings, ensuring the dissemination of valuable information related to these diseases. The epidemiology of many musculoskeletal, rheumatic, and skin diseases is not known. Further, for certain conditions where epidemiologic data have been generated, more recent studies are needed to better understand the current prevalence/incidence, natural history (severity, morbidity, mortality), and the risk factors associated with the disease. The burden of a disease changes over time as the distribution of risk factors change. Understanding the contemporary burden of a disease is needed for policymakers to address disease burden. Furthermore, epidemiologic data is invaluable to public health professionals as they develop interventions to address specific disease challenges. NIAMS is actively soliciting feedback from the research community regarding their interest in leading or participating in epidemiologic studies to better understand what type of epidemiologic research is needed that can have an impact on guiding the research agenda of NIAMS. These areas could involve recruitment of participants with diseases that fall within the NIAMS portfolio (i.e., musculoskeletal, rheumatic, and skin diseases) with some studies having the potential for follow-up of participants. These studies would focus on understanding the prevalence, incidence, natural history, treatment patterns, social determinants of health (i.e., poverty, lack of housing, food insecurity), or the health disparities associated with diseases within the NIAMS portfolio. Special attention is given to studies that include special populations, defined by age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or other pertinent attributes, where epidemiologic research could be particularly impactful.  These epidemiologic data should serve as the foundation for basic and translational research by providing insights into disease burden, risk factors, and impact of interventions on health outcomes.  NIAMS supports the use of implementation science to translate epidemiologic findings into clinical and public health practice by identifying key strategies to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of effective interventions.

Information Requested 

Through this RFI, NIAMS invites feedback from researchers, scientific or professional organizations, and other interested individuals.

Please provide your perspective on the following issues:

1) What type of epidemiologic studies should NIAMS support (e.g., clinical trials, prospective and retrospective cohort studies, case-control, cross-sectional, ecological, registries)? Please explain your reasoning.

2) Which areas of epidemiologic research within the NIAMS mission would most benefit from a data science approach? For example, improving diagnostic criteria using already existing data sets and machine learning approaches for natural language processing.

3) Which diseases within NIAMS' mission areas have gaps and would most benefit from rigorous epidemiologic research? For instance, emerging musculoskeletal, rheumatic, and skin conditions where little is known about prevalence/incidence, natural history, and what are the highly impacted populations.  Please include specific quantitative information to support identification of relevant gaps.

How to Submit a Response

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically at https://rfi.grants.nih.gov/?s=684c81000e763d1bfd0c1474
 

Responses must be received by November 7, 2025
Responses to this RFI are voluntary. Do not include any proprietary, classified, confidential, trade secret, or sensitive information in your response. The responses will be reviewed by NIAMS staff, leadership, and Advisory Council members. Individual feedback will not be provided to any responder. NIAMS will use the information submitted in response to this RFI at its discretion and will not provide comments to any responder’s submission. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. The Government reserves the right to use any submitted information on public NIH websites, in reports, in summaries of the state of the science, in any possible resultant solicitation(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 shall not be construed as a solicitation, grant, or cooperative agreement, or as an obligation on the part of the Federal Government, the NIH, or individual NIH Institutes and Centers to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. The Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the Government’s use of such information. No basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall arise as a result of a response to this request for information or from the Government’s use of such information. 

We look forward to your input and hope that you will share this RFI document with your colleagues.
 

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Kamil Barbour, PhD, MPH, MS, CAPT, USPHS
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Email: [email protected]