Notice of Intent to Publish a Forecast for EmbraceHealth Clinical Research Network to Reduce Health Disparities – Research Sites

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for the EmbraceHealth Clinical Research Network. The overarching goals of the EmbraceHealth Clinical Research Network are to establish and maintain an efficient and nimble infrastructure to conduct research to address emerging, urgent, or chronic health needs among populations that experience health disparities. Each site or consortium within the Network will conduct research to develop, test, and implement clinical and behavioral interventions and services that address key public health needs and diseases with evidence of health disparities. Interventions will be designed and evaluated using robust scientific methods and must demonstrate feasibility, scalability, and reproducibility. The EmbraceHealth Network will serve the purpose of improving routine healthcare services as well as linking clinical practice and science within lower resourced healthcare settings. Each research site in the EmbraceHealth Clinical Research Network must establish a robust infrastructure to support research by: • Recruiting and enrolling clinicians efficiently for health services and clinical research. • Harmonizing electronic health record (EHR) data across systems using approved common data elements for analyses within and across Network sites. • Developing, testing, and deploying interventions, workflows, and decision support systems. • Creating and testing strategies to address health care disparities in primary and/or subspecialty care • Facilitating research on emergent health conditions and factors relevant to health disparities, encompassing their timely prevention, screening, diagnosis, and effective treatment and management. • Collaborating with other Network sites and the Coordinating Center to transfer deidentified data to a central repository for further research. Applications are not being solicited at this time. Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in multiple scientific and clinical disciplines will be encouraged. Activity Code: This NOFO will utilize the U01 (Research Program Grant Cooperative Agreements) or the UG3/UH3 activity codes.

The major elements in evaluating all new grant and renewal grant applications include assessments of the scientific merit and general significance of the proposed study and its objectives; the technical adequacy of the experimental design and approach; the competency of the proposed investigator or group to successfully pursue the project; the adequacy of the available and proposed facilities and resources; and the necessity of the budget components requested in relation to the proposed project and the relevance and importance to the announced program objectives. SBIR and STTR grants: For Phase I grant applications, the criteria used are the soundness and technical merit of the proposed approach; the qualifications of the proposed principal investigator, supporting staff, and consultants; the technological innovation of the proposed research; the potential of the proposed suitability of the facilities and research environment; and where applicable, the adequacy of assurances detailing the proposed means for safeguarding human or animal subjects and/or protecting against or minimizing any adverse effect on the environment. For Phase II grant applications, the criteria used are the degree to which the Phase I objectives were met and feasibility demonstrated; the scientific and technical merit of the proposed approach for achieving the Phase II objectives; the qualifications of the proposed principal investigator, supporting staff and consultants; the technological...