Engagement Award: Capacity Building -- Spring 2026 Cycle
PCORI’s Engagement Award: Capacity Building funds projects that help patients, caregivers, and communities develop skills to partner in patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research.
Funder: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
Due Dates: March 30, 2026 (LOI) | July 13, 2026 (Full proposal, by invitation)
Funding Amounts: Up to $300,000 total costs (direct + indirect) per project; maximum project period is 2 years.
Summary: Supports projects that build the capacity and skills of patients, caregivers, and communities to engage as partners in patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER).
Key Information: Two-step application: LOI required; full proposals by invitation only.
Description
The Engagement Award: Capacity Building (Spring 2026 Cycle) from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funds projects that build the capacity and skills of patients, families, caregivers, and individuals in the broader healthcare community to engage meaningfully in all phases of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). The program aims to:
- Equip non-researchers to become effective partners in future patient-centered CER.
- Strengthen researchers’ ability to collaborate with patient and community partners.
- Expand the impact of previous engagement work in patient-centered CER.
Projects must demonstrate a clear understanding of patient-centered CER, address a documented need for increased engagement capacity, outline a pathway to future CER participation, and describe plans for sharing learnings. PCORI expects shared leadership, active stakeholder partnership, and integration of PCORI’s Foundational Expectations for Partnerships in Research throughout the project.
This opportunity does not fund research studies, the development of clinical interventions, or dissemination of PCORI-funded research findings (see separate PCORI opportunities for those aims).
