Notice Number: NOT-HL-16-299

Key Dates
Release Date: February 5, 2016
Estimated Publication Date of Announcement: Summer 2016
First Estimated Application Due Date: Fall 2016
Earliest Estimated Award Date: Spring 2017
Earliest Estimated Start Date: Summer 2017

Issued by
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Purpose

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) intends to publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications for Hypertension Outcomes for T4 REsearch within Lower Middle-Income Countries (Hy-TREC) to stimulate development of in-country collaborative research teams to identify implementation gaps for evidence-based interventions for prevention, treatment, and control of hypertension in adults and test new implementation strategies that can accelerate national and regional scale-up of these efforts. Funded research will conduct high priority locally-driven late-stage "T4" translation and implementation research. For purposes of this FOA, T4 translation and implementation research is defined as strategies to enhance sustainable uptake of proven-effective interventions into routine clinical practice and community-based settings in order to maximize population health impact.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.

The FOA is expected to be published in Summer 2016 with an expected application due date in Fall 2016.

Research Initiative Details

The main objective of Hy-TREC is to support research from lower middle-income country (Lower-MICs) institutions (i.e., defined by the World Bank as countries with a gross national income per capita of $1,046 to $4,125) to study the implementation of evidence-based strategies at regional or national setting for the prevention, treatment, and control of hypertension in adults.

Hy-TREC will support T4 research in Lower-MICs by developing in-country, multidisciplinary research teams/networks capable of conducting high quality T4 research for hypertension prevention, treatment, and control. The research teams/networks will need to address sustainability and other barriers to the implementation of hypertension prevention, treatment, and control interventions by utilizing established implementation frameworks (e.g. CFIR, RE-AIM, PRECEDE-PROCEED, PARIHS, K2A, etc.). Research efforts will assess key implementation outcomes (e.g., acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, costs, feasibility, fidelity, penetration sustainability) in the community, clinical, and health systems settings. Furthermore, forming in-country strategic research teams and collaborations among major in-country academic health centers, public health agencies (e.g. Ministries of Health, and community organizations) and developing T4 implementation research collaborations with high income countries will be required for this research endeavor.

These teams will need to:
1) Conduct a needs assessment of ongoing in-country hypertension prevention, treatment, and control programs and assess the appropriate baseline implementation measures (e.g. fidelity, penetration, sustainability, etc.) and secondary clinical measures for interventions identifying potential barriers to regional or national scale-up.

2) Execute an effective evidence-based T4 implementation research program leveraging pre-existing hypertension prevention, treatment, and control interventions in Lower-MICs using established implementation research frameworks and collect primary implementation outcomes and/or secondary clinical outcomes (if feasible). Implementation study design must involve multi-level and multi-component interventions involving the management of the health care system, community settings, the providers, patients with hypertension and their families, and appropriate community-based organizations. Components of the implementation research must be evidence-based and feasible for broad future implementation, and address system/facility, physician/provider, and patient barriers.

3) Assess the T4 implementation outcomes at baseline and end of study and secondary clinical outcomes for the hypertension program.

Foreign institutions within Lower-MICs (as defined by The World Bank) with collaborations within high income countries will be permitted to submit applications for the FOA.

Registration Requirements

NOTE: If you are interested in applying for this upcoming funding opportunity and have not obtained a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number and/or are not currently registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), please note that this process takes time to complete. It may take up to four weeks after you submit your SAM registration before your registration is active in SAM and an additional 24 hours for Grants.gov to recognize your information. Grants.gov registration instructions for domestic and foreign organizations can be accessed via this link:
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/ElectronicReceipt/preparing_grantsgov_reg.htm.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

LeShawndra N. Price, Ph.D.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Telephone: 301-451-0164
Email: leshawndra.price@nih.gov