Obesity Policy Research Evaluation and Measures (R01) | Apply Online

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the Obesity Policy Research Evaluation and Measures (R01) opportunity (PA-10-027)?

PA-10-027 is a discretionary federal grant opportunity led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with participation from multiple NIH components and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was designed to fund research that helps policymakers and public health leaders understand how real-world policies and community-level changes influence obesity-related behaviors and health outcomes in the United States.

What is the main purpose of this funding opportunity?

The program aims to produce evidence that can guide population-level decisions affecting diet, physical activity, body weight, and related health conditions. It emphasizes research that evaluates policy and environmental drivers of obesity rather than focusing only on individual-level interventions.

What type of grant mechanism does PA-10-027 use?

This opportunity uses the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) mechanism, which generally supports substantial, multi-year research projects with clearly defined aims and rigorous methods.

What research areas does this FOA specifically encourage?

The announcement encourages R01 applications in two main areas: (1) evaluation research on obesity-related natural experiments and (2) development and/or validation of community-level measures related to food and physical activity environments.

What does the FOA mean by "natural experiments" in obesity policy research?

In this context, natural experiments are studies that evaluate the effects of community or population-level policy interventions that are not randomly assigned by researchers, but instead occur through governmental, institutional, or other real-world actions. The emphasis is on careful study designs that can credibly estimate the impact of these changes.

What kinds of policy or environmental changes are implied as potential natural experiments?

Examples implied by the FOA include changes to nutrition standards in schools, zoning or transportation initiatives that affect walkability, pricing or taxation policies that influence food purchasing, and community-wide programs that change access to healthy foods or safe spaces for physical activity.

What outcomes is the program interested in measuring?

The program focuses on obesity-related behaviors and outcomes, including diet and physical activity behaviors and, ideally, downstream effects on body weight and related health outcomes.

What does the FOA mean by "community-level measures"?

Community-level measures refer to instruments and methodologies that assess food environments and physical activity environments at the community scale. The FOA supports creating and testing tools that help quantify community attributes that shape everyday behaviors.

What are examples of community-level measures mentioned or implied in the FOA?

The FOA points to measures that can capture factors such as the availability, affordability, and marketing of foods; the density and type of food outlets; and built-environment features that support or discourage physical activity, along with other neighborhood or community attributes linked to behavior.

Why does the FOA emphasize developing and validating measures?

The intent is to strengthen the measurement foundation so results can be compared more reliably across locations and over time, and so evaluations can more confidently link policy changes to measurable environmental and behavioral differences.

Are there related or companion funding opportunities to PA-10-027?

Yes. The FOA ran in parallel with two companion announcements with the same scientific scope but different mechanisms: an R21 (Exploratory/Developmental) under PA-10-028 and an R03 (Small Research) under PA-10-029. These were intended to support similar themes at different project scales.

Which agencies and NIH components participated in this opportunity?

Participating organizations included the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), along with the CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

What does the range of participating organizations suggest about the program's focus?

The breadth of participating agencies signals that obesity and its drivers were viewed as cross-cutting issues tied to cancer prevention, cardiovascular health, diabetes and kidney disease, child health, and behavioral and social determinants of health.

Who was eligible to apply?

Eligibility was broad. Eligible applicants included public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and multiple levels of government, including state, county, city or township, special district governments, and independent school districts.

Were tribal governments and tribal organizations eligible?

Yes. The eligibility language allowed tribal governments and tribal organizations, including those other than federally recognized tribal governments.

Were non-U.S. (foreign) organizations eligible to apply?

Yes. The FOA included non-U.S. (foreign) organizations among eligible applicants.

Could U.S. territories or possessions apply?

Yes. U.S. territories or possessions were included among eligible entities.

Were eligible federal agencies allowed to apply?

Yes. The eligibility language noted that certain additional entities could apply, including eligible federal agencies.

Did this FOA require cost sharing or matching funds?

No. The FOA did not require cost sharing or matching funds.

When was this funding opportunity posted and when did it close?

The opportunity was created and posted on November 16, 2009. The original closing date and final listed closing date were January 7, 2013. It had an archive date of February 7, 2013.

Is PA-10-027 still accepting applications?

No. Based on the listed final closing date (January 7, 2013) and archive date (February 7, 2013), it is no longer an active solicitation.

How were awards determined under this opportunity?

Awards were dependent on available funds and the receipt of a sufficient number of high-quality, meritorious applications, consistent with NIH competitive peer review and budget availability.

What CFDA program areas were associated with this opportunity?

The FOA was classified across several CFDA program areas, including chronic disease prevention and control, health promotion and disease prevention research, cancer research and control, cardiovascular research, diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases research, and child health and human development research.

What makes this FOA different from obesity research focused on individuals?

This FOA was built to move beyond individual-level interventions by focusing on policy and environmental drivers operating at community and population scales, prioritizing evaluations of real-world policy changes and stronger measurement tools for community food and physical activity environments.

What are the two main practical outputs the FOA prioritized?

The FOA prioritized (1) credible evaluations of naturally occurring policy and environmental changes and (2) improved measurement tools for community-level food and physical activity environments, with the broader goal of informing effective public policy and improving health outcomes.