Open Funding Opportunities

As part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) intend to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to support research that aligns with one of the research goals of the NIH HEAL Initiative to support new clinical trial programs and the expansion of existing programs to evaluate innovative therapies for pain management. The HEAL KIDS (Knowledge, Innovation and Discovery Studies) Pain initiative will be comprised of interrelated programs addressing critical needs in pediatric pain research. This Notice of Intent to Publish announces plans to support the Acute Pain Clinical Trials (APCT) program, focusing on research to improve the assessment, management, and treatment of acute pain in pediatric patients in various health care settings through innovative multi-site clinical trials while integrating relevant behavioral and social influences and contexts on pain experience. 

To bolster the dwindling clinical pain research workforce, the NIH HEAL Initiative® Partnership to Advance INterdisciplinary (PAIN) Training in Clinical Pain Research (the HEAL PAIN Cohort Program) will support interdisciplinary postdoctoral training to promote the next generation of independent clinical pain researchers.

The purpose of this NIH HEAL Initiative® Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) program is to support a cohort of new and well-trained, independent investigators from diverse backgrounds (e.g. see NOT-OD-20-031, Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity) conducting Pain and/or SUD research, in order to promote a diverse pool of available independent investigators working in research areas supported by the NIH HEAL Initiative®. This program is designed to facilitate a timely transition of eligible postdoctoral researchers from their mentored, postdoctoral research positions to independent, tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions. The program will provide independent NIH research support during this transition to help awardees establish independent research programs in areas supported by the NIH HEAL Initiative®.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement is for basic science experimental studies involving humans, referred to in NOT-OD-18-212 as “prospective basic science studies involving human participants.” These studies fall within the NIH definition of a clinical trial and also meet the definition of basic research. Types of studies that should be submitted under this FOA include studies that prospectively assign human participants to conditions (i.e., experimentally manipulate independent variables) and that assess biomedical or behavioral outcomes in humans for the purpose of understanding the fundamental aspects of phenomena without specific application towards processes or products in mind. Applicants not planning an independent clinical trial or basic experimental study with humans, or proposing to gain research experience in a clinical trial or basic experimental study with humans led by another investigator, must apply to the 'Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed' companion FOA.

The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) based on their scientific missions.

The purpose of the NIH HEAL Initiative® Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) program is to support a cohort of new and well-trained independent investigators conducting Pain and/or SUD research, in order to increase the independent investigator workforce in research areas supported by the NIH HEAL Initiative®. This program is designed to facilitate a timely transition of eligible postdoctoral researchers from their mentored, postdoctoral research positions to independent, tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions. The program will provide independent NIH research support during this transition to help awardees establish independent research programs in areas supported by the NIH HEAL Initiative®.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement is for basic science experimental studies involving humans, referred to in NOT-OD-18-212 as “prospective basic science studies involving human participants.” These studies fall within the NIH definition of a clinical trial and also meet the definition of basic research. Types of studies that should be submitted under this FOA include studies that prospectively assign human participants to conditions (i.e., experimentally manipulate independent variables) and that assess biomedical or behavioral outcomes in humans for the purpose of understanding the fundamental aspects of phenomena without specific application towards processes or products in mind. Applicants not planning an independent clinical trial or basic experimental study with humans, or proposing to gain research experience in a clinical trial or basic experimental study with humans led by another investigator, must apply to the 'Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed' companion FOA.

The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) based on their scientific missions.

Diversity Supplement Guidance pdf  221.15 KB