Grant and contract solicitations are going to be published to support new Comparative Effective Research Projects (CER) supported by $300 million from ARRA appropriated funds. AHRQ has announced that the funding will focus initially on 14 priority conditions discussed by the public as well as by federal agencies and will be formally established by the HHS Secretary. AHRQ anticipates that the grant and contract solicitations will be published beginning in fall 2009 with funding to begin in spring 2010.
The Funding Opportunity Announcements soliciting grant applications will provide:
• $148 million for evidence generation which will include $100 million for the Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness (CHOICE)
• $48 million to establish or improve national patient registries
• $29.5 million to support innovative translation and dissemination grants related to CER
• $20 million to support training and career development in CER
Requests for CER contracts will provide:
• $9.5 million to develop the infrastructure to identify new and or emerging issues for comparative effectiveness review investments
• $10 million to establish a Citizen’s forum to engage all stakeholders in the entire effective healthcare enterprise
AHRQ will fund other grants for approximately $80 million to support evidence synthesis, evidence generation, translation and dissemination, and for salary and benefits for ARRA-related full time positions.
For more information, go to the August 19th Federal Register. Until the solicitations are published, AHRQ cannot provide information on their contents. Future CER solicitations will be published in the NIH Guide http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html. For more information on the Effective Health Care Program, contact Lia Hotchkiss at 301-427-1502.
