| Submissions of Letters of Intent/applications for this funding opportunity is closed. |
The Engagement Award Program is now accepting Letters of Intent (LOIs) for the Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative funding opportunity. This opportunity supports projects that help organizations and communities plan for or actively communicate pertinent PCORI-funded research findings to their specific audiences, including patients, clinicians, communities and others, in ways that will command their attention and interest and encourage use of this information in their healthcare decision making. You may propose projects that will last up to two years and cost up to $250,000.
Your project must focus on one of two funding tracks—Building Capacity for Dissemination or Active Dissemination—and you will self-select the focus at the time of LOI submission.
- Building Capacity for Dissemination: These projects lay the groundwork for disseminating PCORI-funded research findings. Applicants to this track may also propose projects to lay the groundwork for the implementation of PCORI-funded research findings.
- Active Dissemination: These projects spread awareness and increase knowledge of PCORI-funded research findings. This funding opportunity will not support projects that propose passive, untailored and untargeted dissemination strategies.
This recording introduces the October 2023 Cycle Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative funding announcement. To view or download the slides, click here.
I. Engagement Award Program Information
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) plans to award up to $25 million in fiscal year 2024 as part of the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program. This program supports projects that encourage active, meaningful involvement of patients, caregivers, clinicians and other healthcare stakeholders as integral members of the patient-centered outcomes research/comparative clinical effectiveness research (PCOR/CER) enterprise. This program is not a research funding opportunity.
Review how PCORI defines PCOR/CER before you apply.
| Key Definitions: CER and PCOR |
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II. Dissemination Initiative Funding Opportunity Overview
The dissemination of research findings to patients, caregivers, clinicians, communities and other healthcare stakeholders is an important part of promoting the uptake and implementation of these findings in healthcare decision making, practice and policy. This Engagement Award initiative focuses on supporting organizations that are trusted sources for their patient, professional or other community to undertake dissemination activities. It can also support these organizations in building pathways for future uptake of evidence from PCORI-funded studies into healthcare delivery.
Award funds are intended to allow organizations and communities to plan for or actively communicate pertinent PCORI-funded research findings to relevant stakeholders in ways that will command their attention and interest and encourage use of this information in their healthcare decision making.
Dissemination Initiative projects should target end users directly, although the focus of the activity may be on an intermediary. For example, training of clinicians who will communicate information to patients is within the scope of a Dissemination Initiative activity, as is planning for implementation of a program shown effective in a PCORI-funded study into a clinical setting by consulting with health system administrators.
Your project must focus on one of two tracks: Building Capacity for Dissemination or Active Dissemination.
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Defining Dissemination and Implementation
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Funding Track Overview
The Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative allows organizations and communities to propose one of the following:
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Building Capacity for Dissemination projects to lay the groundwork for disseminating PCORI-funded research findings 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.
To note, applicants to this track may also propose projects to lay the groundwork for the implementation of PCORI-funded research findings. For projects building capacity for implementation, applicants must discuss their project idea with PCORI’s Engagement Award Program at least one week prior to the LOI deadline and receive email approval from PCORI before submitting an LOI. Applicants may request a phone call with PCORI staff by emailing [email protected].
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Active Dissemination projects aimed at spreading awareness and increasing knowledge of PCORI-funded research findings, targeted directly to end-user audiences, such as patients, clinicians, communities and others who can use this information to inform healthcare decisions. Projects will actively disseminate the findings from PCORI-funded studies. This funding opportunity will not support projects that propose passive, untailored and untargeted dissemination strategies.
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Key Points for the Engagement Award October 2023 Funding Cycle
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Funding Track Details: Building Capacity for Dissemination
PCORI intends for Building Capacity for Dissemination projects to focus on strengthening the infrastructure and relationships necessary to actively disseminate research results, products or programs tested within PCORI-funded research studies.
For Building Capacity for Dissemination projects, applications must demonstrate a rationale that there is a need for additional patient and/or stakeholder capacity to disseminate PCOR/CER and applicants must identify an area of PCORI’s existing or emerging PCOR/CER findings highly relevant to their target population and in alignment with their organization/institution’s goals.
- More information about conditions and topic areas and populations of interest to PCORI may be found on PCORI’s website.
- Explore PCORI’s portfolio of funded PCOR/CER studies and existing or emerging PCOR/CER findings.
Project activities should build capacity for upcoming efforts to actively disseminate these findings within the context of the existing body of evidence in the topic area as well as future, related PCORI-funded studies. A clear pathway must be built between the proposed project and future dissemination efforts.
Projects under this funding track may also focus on building capacity for implementation, which is distinct from dissemination. Projects building capacity for implementation should focus on developing plans, pathways and support for implementation – that is, for the integration of specific PCORI evidence into healthcare decision-making settings. These projects will have a required deliverable at the end of the project period outlining a “road map” to evidence uptake, describing how the project capacities will support and facilitate uptake in specific settings with stakeholders to be included in the project.
For projects building capacity for implementation only, applicants must discuss their project idea with PCORI’s Engagement Award Program at least one week prior to the LOI deadline and receive email approval from PCORI before submitting an LOI. Applicants may request a phone call with PCORI staff by emailing [email protected].
Note: The Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative’s Building Capacity for Dissemination funding track focuses exclusively on building capacity for the dissemination or implementation of PCORI-funded research findings. Further explanation of differences between related funding opportunities is available on PCORI's Funding Opportunities for Disseminating Evidence web page.
Funding Track Details: Active Dissemination
PCORI intends for Active Dissemination projects to spread awareness and increase knowledge of PCORI-funded research findings. Systematic reviews of research on dissemination have outlined a range of dissemination approaches to spread awareness and increase knowledge (McCormack et al., 2013). These include strategies to:
- Increase the reach of evidence.
- Increase motivation to use and apply evidence.
- Increase ability to use and apply evidence.
These types of strategies may be used together—in combination or in sequence—to increase the reach of evidence and motivate and facilitate its use (with “reach” contextualized as best as possible so that the overall impact is clear to application reviewers).
This funding opportunity is intended to support the active dissemination of findings; PCORI will not support projects that propose passive, untailored and untargeted dissemination strategies, such as untargeted mass mailing, publication of study findings and untargeted presentations to heterogeneous groups.
For Active Dissemination projects, applications must demonstrate the organization’s relationship to the relevant stakeholders and its experience and track record in bringing evidence to them as well as the reach of the proposed strategies (i.e., the number of people in each targeted group whose awareness and knowledge of the evidence disseminated will be meaningfully increased), and the intended impact of uptake of these findings by the relevant stakeholders.
Evidence Eligible for Active Dissemination Projects
The intent of an Active Dissemination project is to disseminate PCORI-funded research findings.
Applicants must conduct a critical review of the proposed evidence for dissemination for applicability, relevance and potential impact of dissemination to stakeholders. Key messages and specific strategies for dissemination must be relevant and justified in the context of the specific stakeholders identified.
Only the following sources of PCORI-funded research findings may be proposed as the basis for dissemination activities under this award. All evidence proposed from the sources below will be considered by reviewers in the context of the proposed project concept. Not all evidence for the proposed project may be found acceptable by reviewers.
- PCORI-funded Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research (CER) Results. Papers published in a peer-reviewed journal resulting from PCORI-funded research studies that present primary comparative clinical effectiveness research results.
- Note: This link goes to a prefiltered list of published primary CER results. Only those publications already listed on the page with the “CER Results” filter in place are eligible. Please do not reset the filter on the results.
- PCORI-funded Systematic Reviews and Systematic Review Updates. Evidence around specific clinical questions produced by analyzing published and unpublished results from all relevant studies on a given topic.
- PCORI Evidence Updates. Briefs highlighting some of the important findings from PCORI-funded research studies in a plain-language format for patients and other stakeholders.
All eligible PCORI-funded research findings proposed for active dissemination must have been published in a peer-reviewed journal (primary CER results) or posted on PCORI’s website (systematic reviews and evidence updates) by the LOI submission deadline.
More information about evidence eligibility can be found in the full announcement. Please contact the Engagement Award Program at [email protected] prior to LOI submission for questions regarding evidence eligibility.
Summary of Funding Tracks
The following table summarizes the distinctions between the two Dissemination Initiative funding tracks.
| Building Capacity for Dissemination | Active Dissemination | |
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| Opportunity | Projects that lay the groundwork for disseminating and implementing PCORI-funded research findings 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. | Projects aimed at spreading awareness and increasing knowledge of PCORI-funded research findings, targeted directly to end-user audiences, such as patients, clinicians, communities, and others who can use this information to inform healthcare decisions. |
| Potential Activities |
Activities should focus on developing, demonstrating, and evaluating the processes/pathways/tools necessary to incorporate PCOR/CER results into decision making settings. |
Activities should focus on leveraging pre-existing relationships with relevant stakeholders to ensure that research results are disseminated through the appropriate pathways for optimal utilization. |
| Evidence Requirements |
Applicants must identify an area of PCORI’s existing or emerging PCOR/CER findings highly relevant to their target population and in alignment with their organization/institution’s goals. Research results should also be placed within the context of the existing body of evidence in the topic area identified. Applicants proposing to build capacity for implementation must discuss their project idea with PCORI’s Engagement Award Program at least one week prior to the LOI deadline and receive email approval from PCORI before submitting an LOI. Applicants may request a phone call with PCORI staff by emailing [email protected]. |
All eligible PCORI-funded research findings proposed must have been published in a peer-reviewed journal (primary CER results) or completed and posted on PCORI’s website (systematic reviews and evidence updates) by the LOI receipt date. Applicants should closely review the section Evidence Eligible for Active Dissemination Projects in the full funding announcement and contact the Engagement Award Program at [email protected] for questions regarding evidence eligibility. |
We expect that projects selected for an Engagement Award will further PCORI’s goals of promoting the relevance of PCOR/CER to target audiences, the implementation of PCOR/CER studies and the uptake of research results by end users. PCORI is committed to using and sharing successful approaches.
The information and learnings generated by Engagement Award projects must be transferrable; they must be of interest or use not just to the applicant organizations but to others doing related work. Learnings and information will be made public so they can have a broader impact. Please see the PCORI Engagement Tool and Resource Repository for examples of what this can look like.
Patient and Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholders include patients, their families, caregivers, organizations that represent patients, clinicians, community members, healthcare purchasers, payers, industry, hospital and other health systems, policy makers and training institutions.
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Patients and other stakeholders who have a connection to, expertise in or lived experience related to the focus area and PCOR/CER should be partners in the project. Projects should include shared leadership and planning teams. The stakeholder groups must be engaged throughout the project. This includes developing the LOI and full proposal, planning and participating in the project and evaluating and sharing project results.
You must submit letters of support from partners, including patients and/or stakeholders, with your full proposal.
III. National Priorities for Health and Topic Themes
PCORI’s funding announcements align with our National Priorities for Health and Topic Themes. The goal is to make sure funded projects address the health and healthcare challenges facing the nation today and in the years ahead. PCORI welcomes Engagement Award LOIs on any topic that meets the Engagement Award Program guidelines, but please be aware of the following National Priorities for Health and Topic Themes when developing your application:
- National Priorities for Health. These are PCORI’s goals that focus on impact, guiding our research funding and other initiatives to improve patient care and health outcomes. The priorities were developed with input from stakeholders.
- Topic Themes. These address specific populations, health behaviors and health conditions. Populations of interest include older adults, children and youth. The Topic Themes also address health conditions, including cardiovascular health, mental and behavioral health, pain management and sleep health, as well as health behaviors, such as substance use and violence and trauma. Four ongoing themes are preventing maternal morbidity and mortality, improving outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, addressing COVID-19 and addressing rare disease.
- Applicant-Initiated Topics: This funding opportunity is not limited to the topics described above. PCORI welcomes all applications that meet Engagement Award Program guidelines. Topics should address healthcare issues important to patients, families, caregivers and the broader health and healthcare community.
IV. Application Review Process
Applying for funding through this PFA is a two-step process. First you submit a Letter of Intent (LOI). Then you must be invited to submit a full proposal.
PCORI conducts rigorous review of the LOIs and full proposals it receives. PCORI may opt to withdraw LOIs and full proposals from the review process if they:
- Are incomplete, are late or do not meet the criteria in the Engagement Award Submission Instructions, the PCORI templates and PCORI Online.
- Do not follow the requirements in this PFA, include nonresponsive activity or do not meet PCORI’s programmatic criteria.
More information is available on the Engagement Award Review Process.
V. Related Funding Opportunities
PCORI’s Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Program is charged with promoting the uptake and use of PCORI-funded research in practice to support patients, caregivers, clinicians and other stakeholders in making informed health decisions. As such, the program offers several award opportunities—in both dissemination and implementation—which some applicants may be eligible to pursue.
The Engagement Award: Dissemination Initiative offers a broader, stakeholder-initiated opportunity to build capacity for dissemination or actively disseminate an increasing number of findings, drawing on the experience and expertise of organizations and communities in reaching relevant stakeholders and capitalizing on a history of trust.
For information about D&I program award opportunities and 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.
VI. Questions?
Read the full announcement and Engagement Award Submission Instructions before you apply. Direct any questions to [email protected].
To discuss a project idea with PCORI staff, submit a request for an EA Applicant Virtual Office Hours session.
PCORI aims to respond to all questions within two business days. However, it cannot promise a response within two business days before a deadline. Plan accordingly; please submit the LOI or full proposal by the deadlines.