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Description

This NIH Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites exploratory and developmental research applications aimed at advancing learning health care research within outpatient mental health and substance use treatment settings. The focus is on supporting the adoption, implementation, sustainability, and continuous improvement of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in community-based settings, including but not limited to Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs).

The initiative emphasizes active collaboration between behavioral health researchers and community behavioral health partners (e.g., service users, practitioners, clinic administrators, policymakers) throughout all phases of the research process. Projects should be co-designed with these partners to ensure relevance and applicability.

Research topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Identifying mutable patient, provider, organizational, or community factors affecting access, engagement, quality, and outcomes of EBPs.
• Strategies to reduce disparities and address social determinants of health among underserved populations.
• Adaptations of EBPs for specific populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, justice-involved individuals, children, adolescents, older adults, and pregnant/postpartum people.
• Workforce development and sustainable training/supervision models for providers.
• Implementation and maintenance of measurement-based care (MBC) and development of tools to support MBC.
• Data-driven quality improvement approaches, including suicide care.
• Hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial designs to test both clinical and implementation outcomes.
• Shared decision-making strategies and integration of primary care into mental health settings.
• Financing and payment models that incentivize EBP implementation and sustainment.
• Use of technology to support decision-making, treatment fidelity, and care integration.
• Strategies to de-implement ineffective or low-value interventions.
• Optimization of multi-component interventions using innovative experimental designs.
• Alignment of interventions with schools, medical facilities, criminal justice, and employment settings.
• Research on crisis response services and their components.

The NOFO supports pilot studies that:

1. Assess feasibility of learning health research approaches (e.g., recruitment, retention).
2. Refine and pilot test experimental protocols.
3. Generate pilot data to inform future, larger-scale studies (e.g., R01-level).

Methodologically rigorous designs are encouraged, including randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs, natural experiments, time-series, and others appropriate to the research question.

Clinical trials under this NOFO should follow the NIMH experimental therapeutics framework, specifying intervention targets, measuring target engagement, and analyzing relationships between target changes and clinical or service outcomes. Adaptations of EBPs require empirical justification and a clear plan to test mechanisms of action.

Applicants must partner with healthcare delivery organizations or entities providing implementation support (e.g., SAMHSA-funded Technical Assistance Centers). Clinical partner advisory boards and involvement of clinical practice partners as key personnel are required.