Evaluating the Impact of Pandemic Era related Food and Housing Policies and Programs on Health Outcomes in Health Disparity Populations (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA NR 23 003

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA NR 23 003

This NIH funding opportunity (RFA-NR-23-003) supports R01 research projects that assess the ongoing and longer-term health effects of pandemic-era government actions that targeted two core social determinants of health: food and nutrition security, and housing security. The central idea is to move beyond short-term pandemic response metrics and rigorously evaluate what happened after these policies and programs were implemented, especially whether they improved health outcomes and reduced inequities, or whether benefits were uneven, temporary, or accompanied by unintended harms. The FOA is explicitly focused on policy and programmatic actions taken at multiple levels of government, including local, state, tribal, and federal efforts, and it invites studies that can link these actions to measurable changes in health and health equity among individuals, families, and communities.

A key priority is understanding impacts in health disparity populations. For this FOA, that includes Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, underserved rural populations, and sexual and gender minority populations. Applicants are expected to center these communities in the research questions and analytic approach, not as an afterthought or a generic subgroup analysis. In practice, that means evaluating whether pandemic-era food and housing supports reached these populations, how program design and implementation shaped uptake, and whether changes in food access or housing stability translated into improved health outcomes or narrowed gaps that existed before the pandemic.

The types of policies and programs of interest include pandemic-era interventions intended to lessen economic and social disruption by improving access to food or stabilizing housing. On the food and nutrition side, this can encompass government actions that expanded or modified food assistance, school meal access, nutrition benefits, or other public programs meant to reduce food insecurity and improve dietary adequacy. On the housing side, it includes measures such as housing assistance, protections aimed at preventing housing loss, and programs designed to maintain housing stability during and after the acute phases of the pandemic. The FOA emphasizes evaluating both ongoing effects (what is still happening now) and long-term effects (what persists, fades, or evolves over time), recognizing that the health consequences of food insecurity and housing instability often accumulate and may not be fully visible in the short run.

The research outcomes of interest are broad as long as they are tied credibly to food/nutrition and housing security pathways and are relevant to health equity. Projects might examine physical health outcomes (for example, chronic disease control, cardiometabolic indicators, maternal and child health outcomes), mental and behavioral health outcomes (such as stress, depression, substance use, or wellbeing), healthcare access and utilization, or other health-related measures that reflect the downstream consequences of meeting basic needs. A strong application under this FOA would typically make clear how the policy or program exposure is defined, how health outcomes are measured, and how the study will address equity by identifying differential impacts, mechanisms, and contextual factors that shape who benefits and why.

The award mechanism is an R01, with clinical trials allowed but not required (Clinical Trial Optional). That signals NIH is open to a range of rigorous designs, from observational and quasi-experimental evaluations of real-world policies to intervention studies when appropriate, as long as the work fits NIH definitions and requirements. In many cases, policy evaluation approaches could include natural experiments, difference-in-differences analyses, interrupted time series, cohort studies, mixed-methods implementation evaluations, and community-engaged research strategies that help interpret quantitative findings and capture lived experience. While the FOA text provided does not list a specific award ceiling or the number of expected awards, it clearly frames the scientific and public health importance around evaluating real policy actions and their lasting health implications in populations that experienced disproportionate harms during the pandemic.

Eligibility is broad and includes many organization types that are positioned to study policy impacts at scale. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses; and other organizations. The FOA also calls out additional eligible applicant types such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. Foreign institutions are not eligible to apply, and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, though foreign components (as NIH defines them in policy) may be allowed, which can matter for projects that involve international expertise or limited overseas activities tied to a primarily U.S.-based research effort.

Administratively, the opportunity is offered by the National Institutes of Health as a discretionary grant in the health and education activity category, with CFDA numbers 93.242, 93.307, and 93.361. The original closing date listed is May 1, 2023, and the FOA was created on February 27, 2023. Even with that timeline, the substance of the announcement is useful as a guide to NIH priorities in this area: generating high-quality evidence on how pandemic-era food and housing policies affected health, identifying which design features and implementation choices mattered most, and producing findings that can inform future decisions aimed at reducing disparities and improving health equity.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Evaluating the Impact of Pandemic Era related Food and Housing Policies and Programs on Health Outcomes in Health Disparity Populations (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, 93.307, 93.361.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-02-27.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-05-01. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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 RFA NR 23 003

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