Building Infrastructure for Precision Medicine Research on Minority Health and Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) (UH2/UH3 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Funding Agency:
- National Institutes of Health
This FOA promotes collaborative research programs to support the development of research infrastructure (e.g., tools, surveys, biospecimens, data, etc.) for precision medicine approaches for minority health and health disparities in AD/ADRD. This FOA serves as a catalytic opportunity for investigators to: (1) focus on populations understudied in AD/ADRD research; (2) build resources that include neurobiological, environmental, behavioral, and social science data; and (3) initiate innovative, integrated, and expanded studies of individuals from these populations. Specifically, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) seeks to support Phase Innovation Awards Cooperative Agreement (UH2/UH3) projects to enable: (1) the formation of transformative, multi-disciplinary teams to address disparities in health outcomes, disease burden, and/or resilience among understudied populations with AD/ADRD; (2) the development, or scaling up, of research infrastructure and resources for studies of AD/ADRD in understudied populations; and (3) pilot projects that incorporate multi-level assessments and approaches to elucidate intersecting behavioral, social, environmental, neural, and physiological pathways affecting or mitigating AD/ADRD outcomes in these populations.
Research Objectives and Requirements
Research projects should be conceptualized within NIA’s Health Disparities Framework, which outlines four key levels of analysis related to disparities research–environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological. Within these levels, the framework highlights important factors for minority health and health disparities research related to healthy aging and AD/ADRD.
Projects that focus on either health disparities or minority health are both responsive to this FOA. The proposed research may focus on single or multiple, understudied populations, or population subgroups. It is envisioned that this initiative will launch multi-disciplinary teams with expertise in neuroscience and behavioral/social science, give rise to rigorous methodologies for minority health and health disparities research, and increase the number of understudied populations in AD/ADRD studies. The objective is to bridge neuroscience with behavioral and social science through the creation and/or use of data sources to be shared with the scientific community. These activities are expected to inform future preventative, therapeutic, and intervention strategies for understudied populations.
There are special concerns, including trust and data ownership, when conducting research on health disparities or in minority populations. To correct for the long-standing lack of inclusive recruitment and retention for AD/ADRD research, and to lay the foundation for sustained partnerships with affected communities, all projects, regardless of scientific aims, must propose and budget for meaningful engagement with relevant stakeholders throughout the research process (e.g., https://www.pcori.org/engagement/value-engagement). Community engagement activities can inform research questions, enhance recruitment and retention efforts, facilitate the collection of data and biospecimens, facilitate the development of culturally appropriate research tools, and promote dissemination of results to community stakeholders.
Application budgets are limited to $350,000 in direct costs per year in years 1 and 2, and $750,000 in direct costs per year in years 3, 4 and 5.
October 21, 2022
Damali Martin, Ph.D., MPH, Division of Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging, Telephone: 301-402-8310, Email: martinda@mail.nih.gov