Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 17 496

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 17 496

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity titled "Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-17-496) supports research projects aimed at improving the health of Native American populations. For this program, "Native Americans" is defined broadly to include Alaska Native, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian communities. It also provides a specific definition of "Native Hawaiian" as an individual whose ancestors were natives of the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778. The overall intent is to fund research that can lead to practical, culturally grounded improvements in health and quality of life, with an emphasis on interventions, early-stage development work, and approaches that can be meaningfully applied in Native communities.

A central focus of the opportunity is exploratory and developmental intervention research. This can include secondary analyses of existing datasets, such as data collected by Tribal Epidemiology Centers, as well as projects that merge multiple data sources to answer high-priority questions affecting Native communities. The FOA also highlights support for pilot and feasibility studies, which are often necessary to test whether an intervention approach is workable, acceptable, and measurable in a specific community setting before scaling up. In addition, applicants are encouraged to assess, adapt, and validate measures (for example, surveys, screening tools, clinical or behavioral metrics) that are being developed for use in Native American contexts, recognizing that standard instruments may not always translate well across cultures or community realities without careful validation.

The research supported under this FOA is expected to be culturally appropriate and aligned with community needs, values, and lived experiences. Projects should be designed in a way that respects and reflects local context and, ideally, strengthens the likelihood that successful strategies will be adopted and sustained. The outcomes NIH is looking for include efforts that promote healthy lifestyles, improve health-related behaviors, and strengthen social or environmental conditions that shape health. Priority areas specifically mentioned include chronic disease-related factors and conditions, prevention or reduction of tobacco use, alcohol use, and other drug use, and improved mental health outcomes. The FOA also includes prevention of HIV risk as an important topic area, along with improving treatment adherence and strengthening health care systems so they adopt and implement standards of care that raise overall quality of life. Because the FOA is labeled "Clinical Trial Optional," applicants may propose studies that include clinical trials if appropriate, but a clinical trial is not required for an application to be responsive.

Eligibility is broad, reflecting an intent to encourage participation across many kinds of organizations that can contribute to Native health research. Eligible applicants include a wide range of U.S.-based entities such as state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, independent school districts, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, and Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized. Higher education institutions are eligible, including public and state-controlled institutions and private institutions, as are nonprofits both with and without 501(c)(3) status, public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, for-profit organizations other than small businesses, and small businesses. The FOA also calls out additional applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs), historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. While the program allows many U.S. applicant types, non-U.S. entities are generally not eligible to apply, and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible. However, the FOA allows foreign components under a narrow circumstance: when a tribe's ancestral catchment area crosses national boundaries, consistent with definitions in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary grant program using the R01 mechanism, listed under multiple CFDA numbers (93.113, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.307, 93.393), and administered by NIH. The posted original closing date in the provided source information is August 14, 2020, with a creation date of September 29, 2017. The source excerpt does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards, which suggests applicants would need to consult the full FOA and NIH institute-specific guidance for budget expectations, scope alignment, and any institute or center priorities tied to the announcement.

In practical terms, this opportunity is designed for teams that want to build, test, refine, or validate intervention strategies that are likely to matter on the ground in Native communities. It supports work that can be data-driven (including sophisticated secondary data approaches), community-centered (with cultural appropriateness as a core expectation), and oriented toward real-world improvements in prevention, behavior change, mental health, substance use outcomes, HIV risk reduction, treatment adherence, and health system quality.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.307, 93.393.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-09-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-08-14. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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