Recovery Act 2009 Limited Competition AHRQ Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness (CHOICE) Grants (R01) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Recovery Act 2009 Limited Competition AHRQ Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness (CHOICE) Grants (R01) opportunity, listed as Funding Opportunity Number RFA-HS-10-003, was a one-time, Recovery Act-funded research grant competition run by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It was built around the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Public Law 111-5, which provided supplemental federal funding to accelerate work with clear public value. In this case, the focus was comparative effectiveness research: studies designed to directly compare clinical interventions, strategies, or approaches so that patients, clinicians, health systems, and policymakers can make better-informed choices in real-world healthcare decisions.

The core purpose of the announcement was to invite Research Project Grant (R01) applications for large-scale projects that would generate new, decision-relevant evidence in priority areas of clinical care. The intent was not incremental or exploratory work, but projects with a strong chance of producing findings that could meaningfully change practice, improve outcomes, or substantially advance clinical care. The FOA language emphasizes impact and practical usefulness: the studies were expected to create new knowledge that helps guide decisions, rather than purely theoretical insights or narrowly technical advancements. The title also signals an emphasis on clinical and health outcomes, meaning applicants needed to focus on results that matter for patient health and healthcare delivery, not just intermediate or laboratory endpoints.

This funding opportunity fell under the broader category of Health and was specifically tied to Recovery Act goals, including rapid stimulus and accelerated research outputs. It used the grant mechanism, with the specific funding instrument being an R01, which is typically used for substantial, multi-year research projects led by an investigator team and hosted by an eligible institution. The FOA was labeled a limited competition, which generally means there were constraints on who could apply or how applicants could be selected, compared with a fully open, general-eligibility competition. In practical terms, a limited competition often aims to concentrate resources on a manageable number of large awards and may involve eligibility conditions or special application expectations described in the full announcement.

From a funding standpoint, this was a major initiative. AHRQ anticipated making around 10 awards, with an estimated total funding level of $100,000,000. The award ceiling was listed as $10,000,000, indicating that individual projects could be very large relative to typical R01 budgets. There was no cost sharing or matching requirement, meaning applicants were not required to contribute non-federal funds to be eligible or competitive, which is consistent with many federal biomedical and health services research grants, especially those designed to spur rapid progress under stimulus funding.

The timeline reflects its Recovery Act nature and the compressed, time-bound availability of ARRA funds. The opportunity was posted on September 25, 2009, and had an original and current closing date of December 16, 2009, with an archive date of January 16, 2010. That schedule indicates a relatively short application window and a defined end point, consistent with special appropriations that are intended to be obligated within specific federal deadlines.

Eligibility was broad across the public sector, higher education, and certain community and tribal entities. Eligible applicants included private institutions of higher education, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, state governments, and county governments. It also included Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments). The FOA further clarified that other eligible applicants included faith-based or community-based organizations and Indian/Native American tribal governments that are not federally recognized, reflecting AHRQ's interest in enabling diverse organizational types to conduct applied health research that could affect varied populations and care settings. An "Others (see text)" category was also listed, which typically means the full FOA contained additional eligibility details or special conditions that applicants needed to verify before applying.

Operationally, the official source for the full announcement was hosted through the NIH grants guide system (a common platform for HHS research funding announcements), with the additional information link pointing to the complete FOA text at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HS-10-003.html. For access or technical issues, the contact listed was the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) webmaster at FBOWebmaster@OD.NIH.GOV, which suggests the primary assistance channel was for electronic access and linking problems rather than programmatic questions.

In short, this CHOICE R01 opportunity was a high-dollar, limited-competition AHRQ initiative funded by ARRA to rapidly produce high-impact comparative effectiveness evidence in priority clinical care areas, with the explicit expectation that funded projects would be large, decision-focused, and capable of driving major advances in clinical practice and health outcomes.

Browse more opportunities from the same agency: Agency for Health Care Research and Quality

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Next opportunity: Recovery Act 2009 Limited Competition Innovative Adaptation and Dissemination of AHRQ Comparative Effectiveness Research Products (iADAPT) (R18)

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