Personal Health Informatics for Delivering Actionable Insights to Individuals (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 25 235

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 25 235

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through the National Library of Medicine (NLM), is soliciting R01 grant applications under the opportunity titled "Personal Health Informatics for Delivering Actionable Insights to Individuals (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" (Funding Opportunity Number: PAR-25-235). The core aim is to push forward the science and practical impact of personal health informatics by developing new informatics and data science methods that help people make sense of their own health information and then turn that understanding into concrete, actionable steps. The emphasis is not just on generating predictions or summaries, but on producing insights that individuals can realistically use to improve health outcomes, manage risk, or make better day-to-day decisions.

A central theme of the NOFO is innovation across the full lifecycle of personal health data: collecting it, integrating it from multiple sources, analyzing it with modern computational approaches, and translating it into personalized assessments of risk, status, or likely trajectories. Projects are encouraged to go beyond a single data stream and consider how different kinds of personal data can be meaningfully combined, such as patient-reported information, data from sensors or wearables, clinical records, or other health-relevant inputs. The funding announcement also highlights the importance of interpretation, meaning applicants should address how individualized results are explained in a way that is understandable and useful to non-expert end users. In particular, NLM is explicitly interested in approaches that clearly communicate not only results but also their limitations, uncertainty, and appropriate use, so individuals are less likely to misinterpret personalized findings.

Another major expectation is a strong end-user focus. NLM encourages applications that actively engage the intended users during design and development, rather than building tools in isolation and testing them later. The NOFO also signals that real-world evaluation matters: applicants should plan to study how these tools, systems, or platforms work in practical settings and what people actually do with the insights they receive. This focus on evaluation is meant to ensure the resulting innovations are not one-off prototypes, but instead inform the creation of tools that can be generalized, reused, scaled, and adopted more broadly to benefit individuals in different contexts and communities.

Mechanistically, this is an R01 grant mechanism, with clinical trials listed as optional, meaning a project may include a clinical trial if it is appropriate for the research question, but a clinical trial is not required. The opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and uses the grant funding instrument type. It falls under the activity areas of education and health, and is associated with CFDA numbers 93.242 and 93.879. The listed award ceiling is $250,000, and the original closing date is January 7, 2027, with the opportunity record created on November 21, 2024.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations that could contribute to personal health informatics research and development. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; other Native American tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and additional entities categorized as "others." The NOFO also explicitly calls out additional eligible groups such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, regional organizations, and even non-U.S. (foreign) organizations.

Overall, the opportunity is aimed at advancing personal health informatics into a more mature, user-centered, and practically useful discipline, where data science does not stop at generating analytics but continues through to delivering well-explained, responsibly framed, and behaviorally meaningful insights that people can use to understand and improve their health in everyday life.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Personal Health Informatics for Delivering Actionable Insights to Individuals (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242, 93.879.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-11-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2027-01-07.
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for PAR 25 235

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