This PFA seeks to fund meaningful implementation projects that promote the uptake of peer-reviewed findings from specific, high-priority PCORI initiatives—in the context of the body of related evidence—and make these findings more actionable and accessible to patients, clinicians, or other targeted decision makers and healthcare stakeholders at the point of care or in other decision settings.

This is an Open Competition funding opportunity that seeks to draw on the expertise, creativity, and capacity of a broad applicant pool, including implementation experts and diverse stakeholder partners. Each release of this PFA will identify selected published, peer-reviewed patient-centered clinical comparative effectiveness research (CER) evidence as the focus for implementation. Please carefully review the “Evidence Eligible as the Focus of Implementation under this PFA” section of the Cycle 1 2019 PFA.

PCORI seeks to fund implementation projects that incorporate active, multicomponent strategies that will lead to uptake and integration of PCORI-funded evidence into real world practice settings. Implementation strategies should target specific end-users with a clear interest in, and able to benefit from, using the evidence. Proposed implementation projects will adapt findings as needed to facilitate uptake in the proposed settings and accomplish scale-up (to reach larger numbers) and/or scale-out (to reach broader audiences, including diverse populations and settings). Applications must be guided by an established conceptual model or framework, and where possible, by evidence regarding effective strategies for implementing evidence-based practices and interventions. Additionally, applications must include a rigorous evaluation plan that documents successful execution of the implementation strategy and impact of the implementation project on healthcare and health outcomes as feasible and appropriate within the project scope.

Applicants will be expected to work closely with relevant patient and healthcare stakeholder groups, as well as with implementation experts, to propose implementation strategies that address barriers and obstacles to evidence uptake, integration into practice, and maintenance of the changes as implemented. Stakeholder involvement in the proposed projects will be critical to their success. Applicants will need to demonstrate commitment and buy-in from proposed implementation sites, including frontline staff critical to the success of the project, to improve healthcare quality and a willingness to invest in the evidence being implemented. This commitment from the sites and frontline staff provides a supportive context and culture for undertaking the proposed project. Further, applicants will be expected to work with regional and national stakeholder organizations, as their support will be critical to extending the impact of PCORI-funded evidence to broader venues based on the experience gained in these projects.

Please be sure to read the full PFA for more information about specific application requirements. Also note that the Merit Review criteria for this PFA are different from those used to review applications for other PFAs.