PCORI Offering $262 Million in Funding for Research Projects

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute has opened the application window for eight funding opportunities

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has opened the application window for roughly $262 million in funding opportunities for programs addressing innovative methods of healthcare delivery.

“PCORI proudly continues its important and unique role as the nation’s leading public funder of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research,” PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, MD, MPH, said in a press release. “In a world of seemingly endless health information sources, and misinformation about clinically effective interventions, sound data that can help people make sense of their many options in a complex health care environment has never been more important.”

In all, PCORI has unveiled eight funding opportunities, known as PCORI Funding Announcements, or PFAs, that offer the potential for almost $300 million in total funding.

The organization, long known for its support of digital health research, has an ambitious goal of funding $1.8 billion in research projects over the next three years, including targeted funds to support clinical effectiveness research (CES) studies on alcohol abuse among teens, delirium in older adults, and mental health concerns in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. PCORI has set aside about $100 million for those three topics.

The largest funding announcement in this group, the Broad Pragmatic Studies PFA, which will offer funding of $5 million to $10 million for five-year CER studies in four categories: addressing disparities; assessment of prevention, diagnosis and treatment options; communication and dissemination research; and improving healthcare systems. Some $162 million has been set aside for those projects.

Another PFA sets aside up to $12 million for studies on improving patient-centered CER to withstand scientific scrutiny. And three more PFAs, totaling $23.5 million, target projects that implement results of PCORI-funded research and advance approaches to effective shared decision-making in practice settings.

PCORI is also seeking public comment through the end of January on its proposed Research Agenda, which would set the ground rules for future funding of CER projects and other research initiatives.