Design and Development of Novel Technologies for Healthy Independent Living (R21) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

Design and Development of Novel Technologies for Healthy Independent Living (R21) is an NIH grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number PAR-11-021) aimed at early-stage, exploratory projects that create and test new technologies to help people live more independently while maintaining health and safety. The participating NIH components include the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institute on Aging (NIA), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH). The core focus is on designing and developing practical, real-world tools that can monitor health or deliver care in real time in ways that are accessible, effective, and minimally intrusive for the user, especially in home and community settings rather than clinical environments.

The opportunity specifically encourages Exploratory/Developmental Research Project (R21) applications, which typically support high-potential concepts that still need proof-of-concept work, early prototyping, feasibility testing, and initial validation. Projects under this FOA are expected to move beyond purely theoretical ideas and into tangible development, such as building and refining prototypes, demonstrating usability, and generating preliminary evidence that the technology can work as intended in the target context. The technologies envisioned can include novel sensors and monitoring platforms, home-use point-of-care devices, home-based or mobile therapeutic and rehabilitation tools, and information systems that help translate data into actionable insights for users, caregivers, or clinicians. A common thread across these categories is that the solutions should fit naturally into everyday life, avoid unnecessary burden, and deliver timely information or interventions that improve outcomes.

A major goal of the FOA is to foster healthy and independent living for populations that often face barriers to consistent care or monitoring. This includes people with disabilities, older adults who may be aging with mild functional impairments, and individuals managing chronic health conditions. The underlying premise is that well-designed technology can reduce preventable complications, support earlier detection of problems, improve adherence to care plans, and make it easier for individuals to remain safely at home. By emphasizing real-time and minimally obtrusive approaches, the FOA points toward solutions that can operate continuously or frequently without requiring complex user steps, such as wearable or ambient sensors, unobtrusive home monitoring, simplified home diagnostics, or mobile rehabilitation tools that can guide therapy outside a clinic.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, this is a discretionary grant program using the NIH grant mechanism, with no cost sharing or matching requirement. The award ceiling listed is $275,000. The FOA was posted and created on November 5, 2010, with an original and current closing date of September 19, 2013, and an archive date of October 20, 2013. While those dates indicate the specific announcement is no longer active, the summary reflects what this particular funding call sought to support during its open period, and similar topics often reappear in later NIH technology and aging-in-place solicitations.

Eligibility is broad and includes many organization types across government, academia, nonprofit, and industry. Eligible applicants listed include state governments, 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, and public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. Nonprofit organizations are eligible both with and without 501(c)(3) status (with the note that some categories exclude institutions of higher education because they are listed separately). For-profit entities are also eligible, including small businesses and other for-profit organizations. Additional eligible groups mentioned include Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs), federally recognized tribal governments, other tribal organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, faith-based or community-based organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. In practical terms, that breadth signals NIH interest in encouraging collaborations that combine clinical insight, engineering and design expertise, and real-world deployment pathways, including partners that can reach the intended end users.

The funding opportunity is categorized under CFDA numbers tied to technology innovation for human health, nursing research, child health and human development research, and aging research (93.286, 93.361, 93.865, 93.866). That spread reflects the cross-cutting nature of healthy independent living technology, where a single tool might involve biomedical sensing, gerontology, rehabilitation, caregiving workflows, and health information systems. For applicants, this typically implies the strongest proposals would clearly define the user population and setting, articulate an unmet need related to independent living, and show a plausible development plan that results in a usable technology with measurable benefits.

The announcement directs applicants to the NIH posting for full details and provides contact support through the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) webmaster for access and linking issues. The full FOA link provided is http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-11-021.html, which historically would contain the detailed scope, application instructions, review criteria, and any special requirements for R21 applications under this call.

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