Key Dates

Related Announcements

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Issued by

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Purpose

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), as part of the Sound Health initiative, is requesting information to guide a potential effort to support capacity building of scientists interested in understanding the relationships between music and health through early career stage training programs. The mission of Sound Health is to advance the integration of music-related art forms with health and medicine by promoting research, catalyzing collaboration, translating discoveries into effective treatments, building community, and enhancing public awareness.

The objectives and goals of this partnership include:

• Support Research: Through research grant awards, support rigorous studies that will increase knowledge about the fundamental science of music and health as well as music-based interventions (MBIs) and related art forms, strengthen evidence about the impact of MBIs and related art forms on developmental and clinical outcomes, and advance implementation science of MBIs and related art forms to promote the integration of evidence-based findings within U.S. health care systems.
• Build Community: Through collaborative platforms and convenings, bring together researchers, artists, and practitioners across multiple disciplines—working within music, science, and medicine—to build partnerships, share information, harness the therapeutic potentials of music and related art forms, and champion the importance of music and related art forms to human development, health, and well-being.
• Public Engagement: Through innovative communication strategies, translate scientific evidence into information that will increase the public’s awareness of music and related art forms and their benefits for human health and well-being across the lifespan.

In December 2023, a workshop titled “Music as Medicine: The Science and Clinical Practice” was sponsored by NIH and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and jointly organized by NIH, the NEA, the Renée Fleming Foundation, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It aimed to highlight accomplishments from the last 6 years in advancing scientific research on music and health, develop a blueprint for the next phase of research, and further build the research community. Find more information, meeting recordings, and meeting summaries on the event page.

This Request for Information (RFI) is to notify stakeholders about the process for providing input.

Responses must be received by September 30, 2024, to be considered.

NIH invites input from stakeholders, experts, communities, and members of the public including, but not limited to, researchers and trainees across academia, industry, and government; health care providers and health advocacy organizations; nongovernmental, scientific, and professional organizations; and Federal agencies.

Submit your comments using the online comment form at https://nccih.nih.gov/request-for-information-rfi-inviting-comments-on-early-career-stage-training-programs-to-support-capacity-building-for-music-and-health-research

Alternatively, responses may be sent to [email protected].

Please comment on any (or all) of the following topic areas:

• Describe the community needs regarding training early career scientists on music and health research (limited to 250 words or less).
• Describe any current practices in the music and health research community regarding mentorship and academic networks for trainees that are helpful or promising (limited to 250 words or less).
• Describe the types of training programs that would be most effective for early carearly career scientists’ development in music and health research (see examples):
  • Individual training grants such as fellowships
  • Institutional training grants
  • Others (please specify)
• Describe the most effective scientific area(s) of training for early career stage scientists in institutional training programs (see examples): 
  • General scientific research methodology
  • Technology
  • Basic science research
  • Clinical research
  • Others (please specify)
• Describe the career-stage(s) appropriate for developing workforce capacity in music and health research (see examples):
  • Undergraduate students
  • Pre-doctoral trainees
  • Post-doctoral trainees
  • Other (please specify)
• Describe the scientific focal areas of institutional training programs that would be most effective to support the growth of music and health research (see examples):
  • General neuroscience research
  • General biology research
  • General translational research
  • General clinical research
  • Disease-specific basic science research
  • Disease-specific clinical research
  • Disease-specific translational research
  • Translational research
  • Implementation science research
  • Other (please specify)
• Describe potential metrics of success for training early career scientists in music and health research (see examples):
  • Number of trainees successfully moving onto the next career stage to continue music and health research
  • Number of trainees obtaining independent funding for music and health research topics
  • Publications by trainees on music and health research
  • Other (please specify)
• Provide any additional comments or suggestions relevant to training early career stage scientists for music and health research (limited to 250 words or less).
• NIH also welcomes your general comments, including those regarding the extent to which NIH has guided and encouraged the field (limited to 250 words or less).

Responses are voluntary and may be submitted anonymously or with your name, organization, and contact information. Each comment received in response to this RFI will be considered in aggregate as part of the capacity building endeavors. 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. Please do not include any personally identifiable or other information that you do not wish to make public. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response.

This request is for information and planning purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the U.S. Government. NIH will not make any awards based on responses to this RFI or pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the Government’s use of such information.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Kaitlin Kirkpatrick Heimke
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Email: [email protected]