NIH Issues Funding Opportunity to Support the PMI Cohort Program Direct Volunteer Pilot Studies
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking proposals for pilot studies and “the needed information technology support for the development of the Direct Volunteer component of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program.” The agency plans to build a “national research cohort of one million or more volunteers who are engaged as partners in a longitudinal, long-term effort to identify the molecular, environmental and behavioral factors that contribute to diverse diseases, to facilitate the development and testing of novel therapies and prevention approaches, and to pioneer mHealth [mobile health] strategies for improving the efficacy of health care.” To that end, NIH released a series of funding opportunities announcements (FOAs) related to PMI and the implementation of the PMI Cohort Program along with two funding opportunities associated with “Other Transaction awards” to facilitate the development of a pilot program designed “to inform the creation of the direct volunteer enrollment component of the cohort” and an accompanying communication infrastructure “vital to conveying the importance of this research effort.”
The FOAs are intended to form the infrastructure for the NIH PMI Cohort Program and were developed based on the recommendations included in the report from the PMI Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director released in September (see Update, September 22, 2015).
The following FOAs were released:
- Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program Coordinating Center (U2C) – RFA-PM-16-001
- Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program Healthcare Provider Organization Enrollment Centers (UG3/UH3) – RFA-PM-16-002
- Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program Participant Technologies Center (U24) – RFA-PM-16-003
- Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program Biobank (U24) – RFA-PM-16-004
- Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program Direct Volunteers Pilot Studies – PM-OT-16-001
- Communication Support for the Precision Medicine Initiative® Research Programs at NIH – PM-OT-16-002
Future FOAs supporting the PMI Cohort Program will be available on the NIH PMI website’s Funding Opportunities page.