Competitive Revision Supplements to Existing AHRQ Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Grants and Cooperative Agreements to Evaluate Health System and Healthcare Professional Responsiveness to COVID-19 (Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) | PA 20 072

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 20 072

This funding opportunity (PA-20-072) is a competitive revision supplement program from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) aimed at helping existing AHRQ Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) awardees quickly expand their current projects to address urgent, real-world needs created by the COVID-19 public health emergency. Rather than funding entirely new, stand-alone studies, AHRQ is offering additional funds to organizations that already hold an active AHRQ award funded under specific PCOR Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs). The core idea is to leverage the existing research team, infrastructure, partnerships, data resources, and institutional environment to add or adjust aims in ways that generate timely, high-impact knowledge about how health systems and healthcare professionals respond to COVID-19.

The focus is on producing actionable evidence related to comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) in the context of the pandemic, and on making sure that evidence reaches the people who can use it. Proposed supplement activities must support either (1) dissemination of comparative clinical effectiveness research findings or (2) training of researchers in the methods used to conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research. In practical terms, a strong application would clearly connect the proposed COVID-19-related work to the parent PCOR project, explain why the supplement is needed now, and show how the revised aims will improve understanding of health system responsiveness and healthcare workforce response during COVID-19, while staying aligned with PCOR priorities.

This FOA is explicitly not intended for projects that were originally supported using AHRQ Health Services Research (HSR) dollars; those awards are directed to a different supplement announcement (PA-20-070). The supplement described here is categorized as a discretionary grant opportunity in the health area (CFDA 93.226), and it is listed as “Clinical Trial Optional,” meaning applicants may propose work that includes a clinical trial component if appropriate, but it is not required.

Eligibility is broad in terms of institution types, but it is constrained by the requirement that applicants must already hold an active, eligible AHRQ PCOR-funded award. Eligible applicant organizations listed include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and other Native American tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education institutions); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) as well as small businesses; and other eligible entities. The announcement also highlights additional eligible groups such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), along with faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and eligible federal agencies. At the same time, it clearly excludes non-U.S. (foreign) institutions and foreign components of U.S. organizations, meaning the work and institutional base must remain domestic.

The opportunity was created on April 29, 2020, with an original closing date of May 31, 2020, and funding was to be made available in Fiscal Year 2020. While the listing does not specify an award ceiling or the number of expected awards in the provided text, it frames the program as a rapid, targeted mechanism to extend existing PCOR projects so they can address immediate COVID-19 response questions, strengthen the evidence base for decision-making, and support dissemination and researcher training related to comparative effectiveness methods during the crisis.

• The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Competitive Revision Supplements to Existing AHRQ Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Grants and Cooperative Agreements to Evaluate Health System and Healthcare Professional Responsiveness to COVID-19 (Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.226.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-04-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-05-31. (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.

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