The Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award program, named in honor of the first chair of PCORI’s Board of Governors, is intended to bring more patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders into the research process. The goal is to support projects that will build a community better able to participate in patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and serve as channels to disseminate study results. This is central to our mission to fund useful CER that will help patients and those who care for them make better-informed healthcare decisions.

The Engagement Award program supports PCORI’s Engagement Imperative—defined in our Strategic Plan—and provides a platform to increase engagement in research, that is, the meaningful involvement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders throughout the research process. 

Learn about Recently Funded Engagement Projects

Engagement Award: Capacity Building

This award category funds projects that build communities prepared to participate in PCOR/CER. These projects support organizations with strong ties to patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders who have a connection to a research focus area, with the awards existing as a bridge to better equip the stakeholders to engage as partners in research. 

Within this announcement, we express two special areas of interest: (1) intellectual and developmental disabilities and (2) maternal morbidity and mortality. Please review the information available on the Engagement Awards Special Area of Interest: Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities webpage and the Engagement Awards Special Area of Interest: Maternal Morbidity and Mortality webpage for more information. PCORI reminds prospective applicants that special areas of interest exist to encourage submissions on a topic, not to limit submissions to that topic only.  PCORI accepts and welcomes Engagement Award: Capacity Building LOIs on all topics related to capacity building for PCOR/CER that fall within the guidelines of the program.

Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative

This award category funds projects —not conferences—to allow organizations and communities to plan for or actively bring relevant PCORI-funded research findings to end users in ways that will command their attention and interest and encourage use of this information in their healthcare decision making.

There are two funding tracks with this award:

• Building Capacity for Dissemination, for projects to lay the groundwork for disseminating and implementing PCORI-funded evidence through organizations with strong ties to end-user audiences, such as patients, clinicians, communities, and others who can use this information to inform healthcare decisions.
• Active Dissemination for projects aimed at spreading awareness and increasing knowledge of PCORI-funded evidence, targeted directly to end-user audiences such as patients, clinicians, communities, and others who can use this information to inform healthcare decisions. The emphasis should be on active dissemination strategies, rather than on passive dissemination or material/partnership development for future dissemination.

For explanation of distinctions between the Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative and Dissemination Projects awarded through the D&I program, please visit PCORI’s Funding Opportunities for Disseminating Evidence web page.

Engagement Award: Stakeholder Convening Support

This award category provides support to organizations and community groups to hold multi-stakeholder convenings, meetings, and conferences that include a combination of patients, caregivers, researchers, clinicians, purchasers, payers, health system leaders, and/or other stakeholders. Convenings should be designed with the active collaboration and partnership of patients, community groups, and/or other stakeholder organizations to bring diverse stakeholders together around a central focus or shared priority that unifies stakeholders (e.g., geography, health condition, population) to explore issues related to PCOR/CER or communicate PCORI-funded research results to targeted end-user audiences.

Within this announcement, we express three special areas of interest: (1) consideration of the full range of outcomes data, (2) intellectual and developmental disabilities, and (3) maternal morbidity and mortality. Please review the information available on the Engagement Awards Special Area of Interest: Consideration of the Full Range of Outcomes Data webpage, the Engagement Awards Special Area of Interest: Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities webpage, and the Engagement Awards Special Area of Interest: Maternal Morbidity and Mortality webpage for more information. PCORI reminds prospective applicants that special areas of interest exist to encourage submissions on a topic, not to limit submissions to that topic only. PCORI welcomes LOIs for convenings on all topics with a clear focus on and commitment to PCOR/CER that falls within the guidelines of the program.

These Engagement Award PCORI Funding Announcements opened on Tuesday, February 1, 2021. Letters of Intent were due April 1, 2021. Full proposals, which were by invitation only, were due July 12, 2021.

• Engagement Award: Capacity Building (April 2021 Cycle)

• Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative (April 2021 Cycle)

• Engagement Award: Stakeholder Convening Support (April 2021 Cycle)

Insight Policy Research reviewed, extracted, and analyzed data from Engagement awardees’ interim and final progress reports, which indicate accomplishments, challenges, and successes during the award period. The synthesis of findings, which was conducted between 2017-2020, is outlined in the poster.

Posted: October 15, 2013; Updated: August 2, 2021