Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 22 106

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 22 106

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity titled "Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (Funding Opportunity Number PAR 22 106) supports small, focused research projects that study how to move proven health interventions into real-world use more effectively. The central idea is to fund dissemination and implementation (D and I) research that goes beyond showing whether an intervention works and instead examines how to get evidence-based interventions, programs, practices, tools, guidelines, treatments, and policies adopted in routine settings. These projects are meant to generate practical knowledge about what helps or blocks uptake in health systems and communities, how interventions can be adapted without losing effectiveness, how to integrate them into workflows, and how to scale them up and sustain them over time.

A major emphasis of this FOA is identifying, developing, and testing strategies to overcome barriers that commonly prevent evidence-based approaches from being used broadly or consistently. Applicants are encouraged to study the full pathway from initial adoption to long-term sustainability, including the organizational, provider, patient, and community factors that influence implementation success. The FOA also explicitly encourages research that strengthens equity in dissemination and implementation, meaning proposals that focus on improving reach and impact of evidence-based interventions among underrepresented or underserved communities are viewed as especially important. In practice, that can include studying implementation approaches tailored to communities that have historically faced structural barriers to care, limited access to high-quality services, or lower inclusion in research and program design.

In addition to promoting adoption and scale-up, the FOA highlights the value of studying "de-implementation," which is the process of reducing, stopping, or replacing practices that are ineffective, unproven, low-value, or harmful. This recognizes that improving health outcomes is not only about adding new best practices, but also about understanding why outdated or low-value practices persist and what strategies actually work to phase them out. De-implementation studies might examine incentives, professional norms, organizational policies, patient expectations, or system-level constraints that keep low-value care in place, and test approaches to safely reduce or eliminate it.

The FOA also welcomes projects that advance D and I research methods and measures. That includes developing better tools for measuring implementation outcomes (such as acceptability, feasibility, adoption, fidelity, cost, penetration, equity impact, and sustainability), improving study designs suited for real-world settings, refining frameworks used in implementation science, and strengthening analytic approaches that can handle complex multi-level contexts. In other words, proposals can focus either on applying D and I methods to improve uptake of an intervention or on improving the scientific toolkit used to study dissemination and implementation itself.

This is an R03 mechanism, which generally aligns with smaller, shorter, and more targeted projects intended to generate early evidence, demonstrate feasibility, or answer discrete D and I research questions. The FOA is labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applications should not propose clinical trials as defined by NIH. Projects should stay within non-clinical-trial research boundaries while still addressing implementation questions in applied settings. Another key requirement is that each application must fit within the mission and scientific priorities of at least one of the participating NIH Institutes or Centers associated with this announcement, so applicants need to align the topic area and outcomes with the relevant NIH component.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic and non-domestic organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, as well as public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education. Tribal entities are eligible, including federally recognized Native American tribal governments and Native American tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments, as well as tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs). Nonprofit organizations are eligible whether or not they have 501(c)(3) status, and both for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses may apply. Additional eligible applicants explicitly called out include Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Hispanic-serving Institutions, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, and foreign (non-U.S.) entities.

Administrative details from the listing include that the agency is NIH, the opportunity is categorized as a discretionary grant, and it maps to multiple CFDA numbers (93.113, 93.121, 93.172, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.313, 93.399, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.989), reflecting the cross-institute nature of D and I research across health domains. The opportunity was created on 2022-05-09, and the original closing date shown is 2025-05-07. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided source data, so applicants would need to consult the full FOA text for the most current budget guidance, project period limits, and other submission and review details.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.121, 93.172, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.313, 93.399, 93.853, 93.865, 93.866, 93.989.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-05-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-05-07. (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.

Apply for PAR 22 106

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