Key Dates

Related Announcements

• January 26, 2023 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant (Parent T32). See NOFO PA-23-048
• January 11, 2023 - Innovations to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R01 Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PAR-23-062 
• January 11, 2023 - Innovations to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R21 Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PAR-23-061
• January 11, 2023 - Formative and Pilot Intervention Research to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R34 Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PAR-23-060
• June 2, 2022 - PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH, CDC and FDA for Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44] Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-22-176
• June 2, 2022 - PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH and CDC for Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44] Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-22-177
• June 2, 2022 - PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-22-178
• June 2, 2022 - PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-22-179
• January 10, 2022 - Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PAR-22-060
• January 10, 2022 - Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools (R15 Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PAR-21-357
• September 8, 2021 - Emerging Global Leader Award (K43 Independent Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PAR-21-251
• September 8, 2021 - Emerging Global Leader Award (K43 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PAR-21-252
• May 19, 2021 - Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PAR-21-155
• May 19, 2021 - Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PAR-21-154
• May 7, 2021 - NIMH Research Education Mentoring Program for HIV/AIDS Researchers (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PAR-21-228
• October 21, 2020 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31). See NOFO PA-21-051
• October 28, 2020 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Parent F31-Diversity). See NOFO PA-21-052
• October 26, 2020 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions Without NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (Parent F30). See NOFO PA-21-050
• October 26, 2020 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32). See NOFO PA-21-048
• May 12, 2020 - Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (Parent K08 Independent Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO  PA-20-202
• May 12, 2020 - Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (Parent K08 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO  PA-20-203
• May 12, 2020 - Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (Parent K23 Independent Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-20-206
• May 12, 2020 - Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (Parent K23 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-205
• May 7, 2020 - NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-200
• May 6, 2020 - Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (Parent K01--Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-190
• May 6, 2020 - Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (Parent K01-Independent Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-20-176 
• May 6, 2020 - Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (Parent K24 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-186
• May 6, 2020 - Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (Parent K24 Independent Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-20-193
• May 5, 2020 - NIH Pathway to Independence Award (Parent K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Required). See NOFO PA-20-187
• May 5, 2020 - NIH Pathway to Independence Award (Parent K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed). See NOFO PA-20-188
• April 1, 2020 - Notice of Special Interest: Developmentally Tailored HIV Prevention and Care Research for Adolescents and Young Adults (Reissue) See Notice NOT-MH-20-035

Issued by

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Purpose

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is issuing this Notice to highlight interest in receiving grant applications that include developmentally tailored research focused on adolescents and young adults (youth) related to HIV prevention and treatment. This Notice of Special Interest is a reissue of NOT-MH-20-035.

It is well known that adolescence and young adulthood are characterized by profound and prolonged changes in biological, social, psychological, neurodevelopmental, hormonal, and immune functioning. Youth acquire essential life skills that occur in contexts that support or hinder healthy outcomes. This is a period of increased behavioral experimentation and vulnerability due to engagement in or exposure to activities, behaviors, and contexts that can confer risk in the acquisition of HIV or lead to poor outcomes among those living with HIV. Globally, youth represent a growing share of people living with HIV. Among individuals living with HIV, youth are the most likely to have poor health outcomes along the HIV care continuum. Therefore, this Notice encourages applications that incorporate recent research advances in youth development to optimize outcomes in HIV prevention and care.

Our understanding of adolescence and young adulthood has increased dramatically over the past 20 years. While it was previously believed that brain development was relatively complete prior to adolescence, research has demonstrated that adolescence is a time of increased neuroplasticity, which has important implications for development. Research has also shown that this is a time of heightened responsiveness to rewards or incentives and to socioemotional contexts, which has implications for decision making around sexual behavior and health care. In addition, adolescence is a time when impulse control and emotional regulation are still developing. Because of the rapid neurodevelopment that occurs during adolescence, the neural impact of inflammation from the persistent exposure to HIV in the CNS could have a more substantial impact on brain development during this time. Neuroendocrine and immune changes are also rapidly occurring during adolescence and young adulthood. These biological changes are occurring at the same time as changes to youth’s social context, defined by increasing time spent with peers, increasing salience of peer relationships, increasing amounts of time spent using technology and being on social media, and initiation of sexual/romantic relationships.Gender and sexual orientation identity development are also key developmental processes that occur during adolescence and young adulthood.

HIV-related intersectional stigma and discrimination may play a role in how youth navigate the tasks of this developmental period. For example, gender dysphoria can intersect with racial or gender stigma to impede access to HIV prevention and other health services. Given changing norms and laws regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, today’s youth are dealing with these tasks in a very different context than that which existed previously. For example, youth may receive more support from their families and peers and/or from online communities, while at the same time, youth (and their families) are sometimes facing very intense social scrutiny, social pressure, stigma, and discrimination. Lastly, adolescence and young adulthood are also characterized by increasing rates of mental health disorders and exposure to violence, both intimate partner violence and violence in their communities, and increasing mobility. Approximately 20% of adolescents have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and many mental health disorders first present during adolescence. Recent evidence suggests that the number of adolescents and young adults who report having a major depressive episode is increasing. Other prevalent mental health disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or externalizing disorders, which are associated with impairments in impulsivity and difficulties with emotional self-regulation, may also have implications for risk during this time. Youth can experience housing instability due to moving out of the family home (home-leaving), livelihood mobility, and displacement due to conflict or natural disasters, among others, all of which can disrupt access to health care and impact prevention and treatment efforts during these periods of development.

While advances in youth HIV research have been made, significant HIV health disparities continue to exist. For these reasons, NIMH is calling for research on HIV treatment and prevention that has a greater focus on the unique developmental factors for adolescents and young adults. Specifically, additional research is needed on how developmental factors across adolescence and young adulthood 1) influence risk and resilience to HIV, 2) influence how youth cope with living with HIV, 3) affect the impact of HIV prevention and treatment interventions, and 4) can be more adequately incorporated into HIV prevention and treatment interventions to improve their impact.

Other considerations for this notice:

• Given the significant amount of heterogeneity that exists among adolescents and young adults, researchers are encouraged to consider the use of different metrics for measuring development beyond chronological age
• Given the importance of incorporating meaningful youth input throughout the research process, the inclusion of a youth advisory board is a minimum requirement for all submissions to this Notice
• Attention to health disparity populations within these developmental periods is encouraged, especially membership in populations that place youth at higher risk for poor HIV-related health outcomes

Areas of Research Interest

Research topics encouraged by this Notice include, but are not limited to, the following:

Research to better understand HIV prevention or treatment mechanisms, relationships, and intervention targets:

• Studies using innovative longitudinal social network analyses/approaches to better understand the influence of peers/friends/partners/family on health behaviors among youth living with HIV and among youth from high incidence populations (or affected communities)
• Studies to better understand how changing gender identity development and sexual orientation development impact HIV prevention and care outcomes
• Research to better understand the effects of persistent exposure to HIV and/or exposure at critical time points to HIV on the developing adolescent and young adult brain
• Research to better understand how developmental factors influence uptake and adherence to biomedical prevention and treatment strategies
• Developing, testing, and validating measures to better understand youth’s ability to engage in self-care behaviors or to predict developmental capacity to adhere to biomedical prevention or treatment
• Research to better understand violence as an obstacle to engagement in and adherence to HIV prevention and treatment among youth
• Development of methods to assess developmental readiness for autonomous adherence to prevention or treatment or readiness to transition to adult HIV care
• Research to assess how social-structural factors relevant to youth, such as age of consent for HIV testing, HIV treatment, or PrEP, affects HIV prevention and treatment outcomes for adolescents
• Studies to better understand intersectional stigma and discrimination among youth and its impact on HIV prevention and treatment
• Studies to better understand the impact of laws and policies (e.g., local, state, or federal) on enrollment into adolescent HIV research
• Secondary analyses using existing data to determine the critical components necessary for the delivery of adolescent-friendly HIV prevention and treatment services
• Research to better understand how human mobility in adolescents and young adults impacts HIV prevention and care

Intervention or implementation research to improve HIV prevention and HIV continua of care:

• Approaches that take into consideration both economic principles (e.g., scarcity mindset, behavioral biases, delay discounting) and neurodevelopment (e.g., sensitivity to rewards, relative cost/benefit of risky behaviors) in developing interventions for adolescents and young adults 
• Interventions that capitalize on new findings on adolescent and young adulthood neurodevelopment
• Interventions that capitalize on the protective and risk-enhancing effects of spaces, places, peers and/or parents
• Interventions to enhance adolescents’ and young adults’ self-control, particularly in the context of heightened emotional states, mental health disorders and/or substance use
• Structural interventions that reduce adolescents’ exposure to risk, given important developmental factors such as adolescents’ enhanced response to anticipated reward, their developing self-regulatory skills, and the enhancement of risk when peers are present
• Implementation science research to evaluate strategies to increase demand and access to HIV prevention and treatment services
• Interventions to assist with the transition from pediatric or adolescent HIV care to adult HIV care
• Interventions that capitalize on youth's social networks (in person or on-line) to speed up the diffusion of new biomedical prevention options or enhance engagement in HIV care for youth living with HIV
• Development and testing of differentiated care models for youth to improve outcomes along the HIV prevention and care continua

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after Sept 7, 2023 and subsequent receipt dates through Sept 8, 2026.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcement through the expiration date of this notice

PA-23-048, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant (Parent T32) 

PAR-23-062, Innovations to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-23-061, Innovations to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-23-060, Formative and Pilot Intervention Research to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R34 Clinical Trial Optional) 

PAR-22-060, Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-22-179, PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Required) 

PA-22-178, PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Not Allowed 

PA-22-177, PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH and CDC for Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44] Clinical Trial Required) 

PA-22-176, PHS 2022-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH, CDC and FDA for Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44] Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-21-048, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32) 

PA-21-050, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions Without NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (Parent F30)

PA-21-051, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31)

PA-21-052, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Parent F31-Diversity) 

PAR-21-154, Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Required) 

PAR-21-155, Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PAR-21-228, NIMH Research Education Mentoring Program for HIV/AIDS Researchers (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PAR-21-251, Emerging Global Leader Award (K43 Independent Clinical Trial Required)

PAR-21-252, Emerging Global Leader Award (K43 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PAR-21-357, Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools (R15 Clinical Trial Required) 

PA-20-176, Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (Parent K01-Independent Clinical Trial Required) 

PA-20-186, Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (Parent K24 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-20-187, NIH Pathway to Independence Award (Parent K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Required) 

PA-20-188, NIH Pathway to Independence Award (Parent K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-20-190, Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (Parent K01--Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-20-193, Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (Parent K24 Independent Clinical Trial Required) 

PA-20-200, NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)  

PA-20-202, Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (Parent K08 Independent Clinical Trial Required)

PA-20-203, Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (Parent K08 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-20-205, Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (Parent K23 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

PA-20-206, Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (Parent K23 Independent Clinical Trial Required) 

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include "NOT-MH-20-035” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to the contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity with the following additions/substitutions:

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Susannah Allison, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 
Telephone: 240-627-3861
Email: [email protected]

Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)

Rita Sisco
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-443-2805
Email: [email protected]