NCCIH Research Blog

I’m pleased to announce that the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has released a notice about an upcoming funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to support virtual resource centers that will foster institutional partnerships and provide resources to support research activities and training for faculty who work at partnering U.S. domestic complementary and integrative health institutions. NCCIH supports several opportunities for clinician-scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to pursue clinically informed research careers at the individual level. However, institutions training health care practitioners in the use of complementary approaches often lack key research resources to fully support clinician-scientist careers of their faculty. 

The REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) virtual resource centers are intended to fill that gap by fostering partnerships with accredited, academic institutions providing clinical degrees in complementary and integrative health professions and by providing a wide array of research and training resources to support clinician-scientist faculty located at these clinical institutions. It is expected that REACH virtual resource centers will (1) improve the quality and quantity of grant applications submitted by faculty at complementary and integrative health clinical institutions; (2) aid the formation of multi and interdisciplinary research partnerships across partnering integrative health clinical institutions; (3) help to enhance the research environment at integrative health clinical institutions; and (4) support a pipeline for clinician-scientists trained in complementary and integrative health practices to pursue research careers at integrative health clinical institutions.

Key Features of the FOA

• Virtual resources: 
  • All resources must be virtually available including, but not limited to, administrative support, research support, grantsmanship, mentoring and training, and teambuilding resources.
  • Resources should be designed to support investigators pursuing clinical research aligned with NCCIH strategic priorities for symptom management.
  • Applicants should justify the resources they propose based on the needs of their partnering institutions and demonstrate their ability to provide expertise for the proposed resources.
• Institutional partnerships:
  • REACH resource centers must include letters of support from at least three partnering accredited U.S. domestic complementary and integrative health clinical institutions, such as schools of acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, naturopathy, physical therapy, and music and art therapy. 
  • Initial partnerships cannot all come from a single complementary or integrative health discipline, and there must be plans to conduct outreach and expand partnerships to additional institutions throughout the course of funding.
  • The partnering institutions must commit in-kind support to provide at least 20 percent effort protected time for selected faculty to participate in REACH center activities for at least 1 year.

This FOA will use the U24 activity code and will provide up to 5 years of funding with a budget of up to $750,000 direct costs per year. NCCIH anticipates making up to two awards. 

We hope many of you will be interested in responding to this funding opportunity. If you have questions or wish to discuss the aims of your proposed REACH center proposal, please contact Dr. Lanay Mudd at lanay.mudd@nih.gov. You can also register to attend a technical assistance webinar on September 21, 2022 at 2 p.m. ET.

For More Information

• REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Virtual Resource Centers (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for REsearch Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Virtual Resource Centers (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• REACH Technical Assistance Webinar (September 21, 2022 at 2 p.m. ET) – Registration is required.