Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Planning Grant)

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage pilot research consistent with NIMH’s priorities for: 1) effectiveness research on preventive and therapeutic interventions with previously demonstrated efficacy, for use with broader target populations or for use in community practice settings, and 2) research on the development and preliminary testing of innovative services interventions. Applications should provide resources for evaluating the feasibility, tolerability, acceptability and safety of approaches to improve mental health/functional outcomes, to modify risk factors, or to improve service delivery, and for obtaining the preliminary data needed as a pre-requisite to a larger-scale intervention trial (e.g., comparative effectiveness study, practical trial) or large-scale services study.

In this pilot phase of effectiveness research, NIMH places highest priority on approaches that can be justified in terms of their potential to substantially impact practice and public health and approaches that are empirically grounded. Adaptations or augmentations of efficacious interventions should only be undertaken if there is an empirical rationale for the adaptation target and for the corresponding mechanism by which the adapted intervention or augmentation is expected to substantially enhance outcomes. This FOA is intended to support pilot effectiveness trials that are designed to explicitly address whether the intervention engages the target(s)/mechanism(s) presumed to underlie the intervention effects.

Read RFA-17-612 for more information.