PCORI offers up to $100 million for new research promoting healthy children and youth

Sept. 4, 2024 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today began inviting proposals through eight new funding opportunities, including three PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs) for patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). One PFA is offering up to $100 million to support CER studies promoting healthy children and youth, a demographic representing more than a third of the U.S. population and facing a range of mental and physical health challenges. 

“These latest funding announcements reinforce PCORI’s role as a leader in funding patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., MPH. “PCORI-funded CER studies are designed to generate valuable insights addressing critical evidence gaps to help people make better-informed healthcare decisions and improve healthcare delivery and outcomes across all age groups.”   

Promoting healthy children and youth is one of PCORI’s Research Project Agenda Topic Themes, which address health issues impacting millions of people living in the United States. The Promoting Healthy Children and Youth PFA seeks to fund studies focused on interventions that improve patient-centered outcomes among children and youth ages 0-24. The PFA is open broadly to CER questions that address the health of children and youth; however, PCORI is particularly interested in proposals on: 

• Preventing and treating pediatric obesity. 

• Addressing social determinants of health and social needs to improve health outcomes. 

• Preventing substance abuse through identified risk factors. 

PCORI also is offering up to $200 million through the Phased Large Awards for Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research (PLACER) PFA, for ambitious, large-scale two-phased trials addressing critical decisional dilemmas requiring new evidence about the comparative effectiveness of available interventions. Additionally, up to $160 million is available through the Broad Pragmatic Studies (BPS) PFA, for smaller-scale CER studies and includes special areas of emphasis on:  

• Social isolation in older adults. 

• Health communication strategies for COVID-19 vaccine uptake. 

• Sleep health in inpatient settings. 

Through the PLACER and BPS PFAs, research teams may submit applications on any patient-centered CER topic that advances progress on PCORI’s National Priorities for Health. The BPS PFA also invites studies using PCORnet®, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, for large-scale research.  

Additional PFAs focus on evidence uptake, the science of engagement and methods 

PCORI supports initiatives to accelerate the adoption of useful CER evidence into clinical practice. Three PFAs seek proposals for projects to implement results of PCORI-funded research and advance shared decision-making approaches in practice settings.  

Offering up to $36 million, the Science of Engagement PFA seeks proposals for studies to build evidence on optimizing engagement of patients and other healthcare decision makers in patient-centered CER design and conduct.  

Another PFA, offering up to $12 million, seeks proposals for methods development studies to enhance methodological approaches across the patient-centered CER field. 

“These funding activities support PCORI’s mission by enhancing the knowledge and resources needed to conduct stakeholder-engaged and rigorous patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research,” said Harv Feldman, M.D., MSCE, PCORI’s deputy executive director for patient-centered research programs. “We look forward to valuable evidence and enhanced methodologies to support the conduct of patient-centered CER that will emerge through these new PCORI Funding Announcements.” 

Awarded funding totals within and across PCORI PFAs are subject to the quantity and quality of applications received. To date, PCORI has awarded more than $4.5 billion to fund patient-centered CER and research-related projects. Details about recent funding announcements are available on PCORI’s website. 

About PCORI 

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is the nation’s leading funder of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). By comparing two or more health or healthcare approaches, CER generates evidence that helps people make better-informed decisions and improves healthcare delivery and outcomes. PCORI takes a holistic approach to its work, ensuring that patients and other health decision makers are engaged as partners throughout the research process, supporting dissemination and implementation of results in practice and strengthening clinical research infrastructure to advance patient-centered CER. PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress. Visit pcori.org.