Pragmatic Research in Healthcare Settings to Improve Diabetes and Obesity Prevention and Care (R18) | PAR 17 177

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 17 177

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity titled Pragmatic Research in Healthcare Settings to Improve Diabetes and Obesity Prevention and Care (R18) (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-17-177) is a discretionary grant program aimed at supporting real-world, practice-based research that can measurably improve how diabetes and obesity are prevented and treated in routine medical care. The central idea is to move beyond tightly controlled research environments and instead test innovative, practical approaches inside the healthcare settings where patients already receive care, such as clinics, health systems, and other care delivery organizations. The emphasis is on pragmatic research, meaning the work should be designed to fit the realities of everyday healthcare operations and patient populations, and to produce findings that are useful for clinicians, health system leaders, and policymakers.

A key requirement is that proposed interventions must be integrated into existing healthcare structures and workflows. In other words, applicants cannot treat a healthcare site simply as a convenient place to recruit participants while running an intervention that sits outside normal operations. The interventions should be embedded into current processes of care or system infrastructure, with the goal of making improvements that could realistically be sustained after the grant ends. NIH is looking for strategies that strengthen care delivery and improve health outcomes for people who have diabetes and/or obesity, as well as people who are at risk for developing these conditions. The FOA highlights both prevention and treatment, allowing applicants to focus on early risk reduction, improved disease management, or a combination of both, as long as the approach is designed for implementation in routine care.

Another major theme is broad dissemination and generalizability. The research is expected to produce knowledge that can be applied beyond the single location where it is tested. That means applicants should design and evaluate approaches with an eye toward scalability and transportability to other healthcare settings, patient populations, and organizational contexts. NIH is ultimately trying to fund studies that generate evidence capable of improving standard healthcare practice and informing healthcare policy decisions related to diabetes and obesity prevention and management. Practical outcomes may include improved clinical processes (such as screening, referral pathways, care coordination, adherence support, or follow-up procedures) and improved patient-centered health outcomes (such as weight-related outcomes, glycemic control, cardiometabolic risk factors, complications, quality of life, or other meaningful measures linked to diabetes and obesity).

This opportunity uses the NIH R18 grant mechanism, which is commonly associated with research demonstration and dissemination projects and tends to align well with pragmatic, implementation-aware studies conducted in applied settings. The funding activity category is listed under Food and Nutrition and Health, and the CFDA number is 93.847. The original closing date shown for this announcement was January 24, 2018, and the record creation date was February 28, 2017. The listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided source data, indicating those specifics were either not included in the excerpt or not defined there.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations involved in healthcare, research, and public service. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments, as well as tribal organizations and tribal governments that are not federally recognized (as separately enumerated); public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education when categorized separately); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The FOA also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it clearly restricts foreign involvement: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement are not allowed.

Overall, this FOA is designed for applicants who can partner closely with real healthcare delivery settings and who want to test interventions that are operationally realistic, sustainable, and capable of being scaled. The strongest proposals under this announcement would typically be those that align intervention design with existing clinical workflows, demonstrate a clear plan for evaluating both care processes and patient outcomes, and generate results that can guide broader adoption across health systems and influence policy approaches to diabetes and obesity prevention and care.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Pragmatic Research in Healthcare Settings to Improve Diabetes and Obesity Prevention and Care (R18)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-02-28.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-01-24. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for PAR 17 177

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