Advancing Vision Health Equity through Multi-level Interventions and Community-Engaged Research (R01 - Clinical Trial Optional)
Funding Agency:
- National Institutes of Health
This funding opportunity supports research that aims to promote health equity by preventing, reducing, or eliminating disparities in eye and vision health. The objective is to promote interventions that improve vision health via community engagement across more than one levels and domains. Specifically:
- Research must involve interventions that simultaneously address vision health conditions and social determinants of health at more than one level of influence (i.e., individual, interpersonal, community, societal) and across multiple domains (i.e., behavioral, physical/built environment, health care system) as appropriate.
- Research must include a focus on improving vision health in one or more NIH-designated Populations with Health Disparities (defined above).
- Research must demonstrate meaningful community engagement in different stages of the project. Evidence of community engagement includes but is not limited to community organizations holding key personnel roles (e.g., as Co-Investigator or co-leading multiple principal investigators) on research projects.
Additionally, applicants should note the following:
Team science involving the convergence across multiple areas of expertise are strongly encouraged in this initiative. These areas may include but are not limited to health services, health disparities, education, health economics, behavioral science, implementation science, and social science research.
Systems level and structural interventions (e.g., access to resources) to improve and integrate eye care and/or promote access to eye care at the clinical and community levels are encouraged. Interventions should be based on conceptual models that propose mechanisms of action and pathways explaining vision health or vision health disparities and SDOH, as applicable.
Developing interventions that target the complex causes or consequences of disparities and address risk factors and promote protective factors of vision health are encouraged. Interventions should extend beyond modifying individual-level health behavior (i.e., should include interpersonal, community, or societal levels). The proposed projects are encouraged to measure the multi-level and/or multi-domain SDOH addressed and affected by the intervention, as applicable.
Applicants are encouraged to conduct tailored interventions in a variety of settings (e.g., clinics, schools, community centers, pharmacies, workplaces, churches, justice settings, fitness centers), disaggregated subpopulations, and include unique considerations of persons belonging to multiple populations experiencing health disparities through an intersectional approach, as appropriate.
Investigators proposing to evaluate the effect of an intervention on a health-related biomedical, behavioral, or clinical outcome are strongly encouraged to use appropriate intervention study designs. These designs include but are not limited to: a parallel group- or cluster-randomized trial, a stepped-wedge group- or cluster randomized trial, a rigorous quasi-experimental design such as a group- or cluster-level regression discontinuity design or an interrupted time-series design, or a rigorous alternative. Whenever participants are assigned to study arms in groups or clusters (e.g., families, clinics, schools, worksites, communities, counties, states) and observations taken on individual participants are analyzed for intervention effects, special methods are required for analysis and sample size. Methods consistent with plans for assignment of participants and delivery of interventions should be documented in the application (additional information available at https://researchmethodsresources.nih.gov/). Applicants are strongly encouraged to assess SDOH using measures available in the Social Determinants of Health Collection of the PhenX Toolkit (www.phenxtoolkit.org), as appropriate. Interventions may also include health information technology applications (e.g., behavior monitoring tools, decision aids, health information portals) and/or social media elements to reduce disparities and improve health.
Projects should be community-engaged and culturally grounded. For this NOFO, we encourage approaches that include greater participation and collaboration with the community of interest, including shared leadership of community members in the research design and implementation of the project. Collaborations with relevant community and organizational entities may include researchers with relevant lived experience, community organizations, healthcare providers, public health organizations, consumer advocacy groups, and places of worship or religious institutions. Specifically, projects are expected to recognize the diversity of disproportionately affected populations and value of lived experiences to address the unique needs of a target community with cultural sensitivity and awareness of what may limit or facilitate the availability of resources. As appropriate for the research questions posed, inclusion of key community members in the conceptualization, planning and implementation of the research is encouraged.
Application budgets are limited to $1,000,000 direct costs annually, not including Consortium F&A costs.
March 3, 2025
Jimmy Le, ScD
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Telephone: 301-435-8160
Email: jimmy.le@nih.gov
Houmam Araj, PhD
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Phone: (301) 435-8166
E-mail: arajh@nei.nih.gov
Cheri Wiggs, PhD
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Phone: (301) 402-0276
E-mail: cheri.wiggs@nih.gov
Carolina Vanessa Solissanabria, M.D., MPH, FACS
NIMHD - NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES
Phone: 301-402-1366
E-mail: carolina.solissanabria@nih.gov