Emergency Award: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 21 213

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 21 213

The Emergency Award: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity designed to quickly build and coordinate research that explains how COVID-19 and pandemic response measures changed people s lives and health. The focus is not on testing medical treatments or running clinical trials, but on understanding real-world social and behavioral shifts (how individuals, families, and communities acted and adapted) and the economic disruptions that followed (job loss, income instability, housing strain, disrupted services) and how those disruptions influenced health-related outcomes. A central expectation is that applicants pay close attention to underserved and vulnerable populations, meaning the research should directly examine inequities and the ways COVID-19 related policies and economic shocks differentially affected communities already facing barriers to healthcare, stable employment, safe housing, education, and other resources that shape health.

This award uses a cooperative agreement mechanism (U01), which typically means NIH program staff have an active role in coordinating the work across funded projects. In practical terms, the consortium framing signals that projects are meant to contribute to a broader, shared research effort rather than operate as isolated studies. Applicants should anticipate collaboration, data harmonization, shared measures where feasible, and participation in consortium activities that help produce findings that are comparable and useful across settings and populations. Because it is an emergency award, the intent is to generate timely, policy-relevant evidence about behavioral responses to mitigation strategies (such as distancing, school closures, masking, changes in caregiving, changes in healthcare seeking) and to connect those responses to downstream outcomes including mental health, substance use, chronic disease management, family functioning, community cohesion, and access to social and health services.

The opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-21-213) falls under the broad NIH activity areas of education and health research and is tied to multiple CFDA numbers (93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.307, 93.313, 93.866, 93.867), reflecting that several NIH institutes and centers may have participated or that the research priorities span multiple domains. The award ceiling listed is 500,000, which indicates the maximum funding level per award under the announcement as provided in the source information. The original closing date for applications was 2021-11-08, and the announcement was created on 2021-04-06, which places it in the period when NIH issued rapid-response funding to address urgent COVID-19 research needs.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations and governments. Eligible applicants include state, county, city, township, and 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; Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and other entities. The announcement also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. Taken together, this signals NIH interest in proposals rooted in community contexts and institutions that serve populations heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Foreign eligibility is limited in a way that is common for NIH opportunities: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply as the applicant organization. However, foreign components are allowed as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, which generally means a U.S. applicant may include specific, well-justified foreign activities or collaborations as part of the project if they are necessary for the science and meet NIH policy requirements. The “Clinical Trial Not Allowed” designation means the proposed work should not include a clinical trial as NIH defines it; applicants would be expected to design studies around observational data, surveys, qualitative research, policy analysis, natural experiments, administrative data linkages, or other non-trial methods appropriate for examining social, behavioral, and economic impacts.

Overall, this funding opportunity is aimed at building coordinated, consortium-based evidence on how the pandemic and mitigation strategies reshaped behavior and economic conditions, and how those changes translated into health outcomes. Strong proposals under a program like this typically emphasize equity, clear and measurable outcomes, rigorous social and behavioral science methods, and a plan to collaborate with other consortium members so the resulting findings can inform public health practice and policy, especially for communities that experienced disproportionate harm.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Emergency Award: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.307, 93.313, 93.866, 93.867.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-04-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-11-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 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 21 213

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