NIH Limited Submission Funding Opportunity Notice: Addressing Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality and Morbidity

LOIs due to OVPR by April 23

The National Institutes of Health has announced a limited submissions grant competition, Addressing Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality and Morbidity (R01 Clinical Trial Optional). Only one application per institution will be allowed; letters of intent will be reviewed and selected by the Office of the Vice President for Research.

This initiative will support multidisciplinary research examining mechanisms underlying racial and ethnic disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity, testing the efficacy and/or effectiveness of multi-level interventions, and/or research strategies to optimally and sustainably deliver proven-effective prevention and treatment interventions to reduce these disparities.  

The timeline for this opportunity is as follows:

1. Letters of Intent for WSU internal review: Due Thursday, April 23, 2020.

2. Selected letter of intent must submit LOI to NIH by April 29, 2020.

3. Full application is due by 5 p.m., May 29, 2020.

To review the full RFA, please visit https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MD-20-008.html?utm.

Interested applicants should submit a one page Letter of Intent that contains a listing of PI(s) and their affiliations, and a brief description of the proposed research plan via e-mail to Dr. Denise Figlewicz, assistant vice president for research, at cn8348@wayne.edu.

Examples of Specific Areas of Research Interest

Applications should be relevant to the objectives of the funding opportunity announcement and to at least one of the participating Institutes’ and Offices’ research interests. Researchers are strongly encouraged to review the general research interests and priorities of the participating ICs. Research topics of interest include but are not limited to:

In addition to the above areas of interest, interests of selected participating Institutes and Centers (ICs) are summarized below. Applicants are encouraged to contact the Scientific/Research contact at the intended IC to ensure that proposed aims of the project are consistent with IC mission and priorities.

• Integration of health systems and/or community-based practices into health care systems to enhance access to and continuity of care for racial and ethnic minority women, socioeconomically disadvantaged women, and women living in rural areas, during the perinatal period and up to one year after delivery (e.g., doula support from the beginning of pregnancy, task-shifting/sharing; shared decision-making; data-driven quality improvement, amelioration of unconscious biases among providers).
• Multi-level strategies to enhance self-care and self-management of racial and ethnic minority mothers in the postpartum period.
• Multi-level strategies, such as those utilizing health information technology tools, to ensure that racial and ethnic minority women and women living in rural areas receive preventative obstetric care consistent with national evidence-based recommended guidelines.
• The impact of quality improvement efforts implemented by state perinatal quality collaboratives on racial and ethnic disparities in state-level maternal mortality and morbidity rates.
• The role of access to and use of quality and affordable primary care in managing medical conditions (e.g., hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular disease) that increase risk for pregnancy-related complications (e.g., hemorrhage, preeclampsia) and adverse outcomes in the year after delivery (e.g., stroke, heart failure).
• Multi-level strategies to implement recommended guidelines of care for chronic or pre-existing health conditions during pregnancy and up to one year post-partum, and evaluate their effectiveness within the context of age, place and social determinants of health
• Development and testing of new or adapted multilevel interventions (e.g., patient, family, provider, facility, system, and community levels); health services research to examine the effectiveness of new or existing programs, services, or policies; and/or implementation research in the "real world" to examine the uptake, scale up, and sustainability of proven-effective, evidence-based interventions or practices.

Additional interests of selected participating Institutes and Centers are summarized in the grant announcement.