patient-centered outcomes research on addressing violence and trauma – May 13

Posted by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute on April 29, 2025

PCORI issues funding announcement for addressing violence and trauma

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funds patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER), which compares the benefits and potential harms of different healthcare options, generating evidence that empowers patients, caregivers and other healthcare decision makers with information to make informed choices that reflect their needs and preferences.

According to PCORI, across the United States, people experience fatal and nonfatal injuries each year resulting in hospitalizations, emergency department visits, or primary and urgent care visits. While the types of traumatic experiences vary, any exposure to trauma, especially in childhood, can have adverse effects on mental and physical health. Patient-centered comparative CER is required for health systems to appropriately address violence and trauma and effectively overcome clinical challenges associated with identification and treatment of affected and at-risk populations. PCORI is interested in patient-centered CER of clinical interventions and health system strategies that focus on community-based and hospital-based interventions to address violence and trauma.

PCORI has issued a funding announcement for efforts to address violence and trauma. This topical funding announcement is exclusively dedicated to funding high-quality, patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research projects that address violence and trauma within the following three special areas of emphasis:

Intentional Trauma: Projects must focus on one or more of the following populations: individuals affected by intimate partner violence, children and youth who have experienced abuse, and older adults subjected to abuse or neglect.

Unintentional Trauma: Research must specifically target: patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), care models for fall prevention and fall recovery among older adults, and impaired mobility and physical function resulting from unintentional trauma.

Substance Use and Trauma: Studies must compare existing strategies for pain management aimed at reducing susceptibility to substance use disorder (SUD) in the context of traumatic injury treatment.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to propose individual- or cluster-randomized controlled trials; however, well-specified natural experiments and well-designed observational studies will also be considered. Proposed studies should include an overall sample size that will allow precision in the estimation of hypothesized effect sizes and, as appropriate, analysis of heterogeneity of treatment effect.

A total of $60 million is available through this funding announcement, with maximum project costs of up to $12 million over up to five years to be awarded.

In general, applications for the conduct of research and management of funding may be submitted by appropriate academic research, private sector research, or study-conducting entities. This may include, among others, agencies and instrumentalities of the federal government, nonprofit and for-profit research organizations, and colleges and universities.

Letters of intent are due May 13, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application, due September 3, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the PCORI website.

Deadline: May 13, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. ET (Letters of Intent)