Innovative Approaches to Studying Cancer Communication in the New Media Environment (R21 - Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 18 639

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 18 639

The NIH funding opportunity PAR-18-639, titled "Innovative Approaches to Studying Cancer Communication in the New Media Environment (R21 - Clinical Trial Optional)," supports early-stage, exploratory research that brings modern, technology-forward methods into the study of how people communicate about cancer and how that communication influences prevention and care. The main idea is to encourage researchers to test fresh concepts, build or adapt new tools, and pilot novel methodological approaches that can improve cancer communication research across the entire cancer control continuum. That continuum is broad by design: projects can focus on cancer prevention, early detection and screening, diagnosis, treatment decision making, survivorship, caregiving, and even end-of-life communication.

This FOA is centered on the reality that cancer information now spreads through digital and data-rich environments, and the NIH is looking for studies that can make sense of those environments in more rigorous and innovative ways. Applicants are encouraged to use one or more cutting-edge analytic approaches, research methods, or emerging data sources. Examples explicitly highlighted include social media data mining, Natural Language Processing (NLP) for analyzing large-scale text and conversations, online social network analysis to understand how information and influence move through communities, and crowdsourcing tools such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) for rapid testing of messages or hypotheses. The announcement also points to online search data as a way to capture real-world information seeking, Ecological Momentary Assessment to measure communication exposures and reactions in real time, neuroscience and biobehavioral approaches to understand mechanisms of message processing and persuasion, and geographic information systems (GIS) to study how communication and outcomes vary by place, community context, or resource availability. The emphasis is not on using every method, but on selecting methods that offer a clear advantage for answering an important cancer communication question in a new media context.

In terms of what the research should measure, the FOA is focused on outcomes that matter for cancer prevention and control. That includes classic communication targets like knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs, but also more applied and behavior-linked outcomes such as perceived cancer risk, screening and treatment decision making, and shared decision making between patients and clinicians. It also encourages work on information inequalities, recognizing that digital communication can reduce or widen disparities depending on who has access, trust, and the skills to evaluate information quality. Other outcomes mentioned include social support and caregiving dynamics (often mediated through online groups and platforms), persuasion and message effects, behavioral intentions, actual preventive behaviors, and policy support. In practice, this could cover topics like how misinformation spreads in cancer spaces online, how tailored messages affect screening uptake, how online communities shape survivorship coping, or how search trends relate to real-world prevention behavior, as long as the study is grounded in cancer communication and uses innovative methods suited to modern media.

The funding mechanism is the NIH Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21), which is meant for high-potential ideas at an earlier stage of development. R21 projects are typically pilots or proof-of-concept studies where the goal is to generate insights, feasibility evidence, or initial data that can lead to larger studies later. A key point in the announcement is that an R21 application does not need extensive preliminary data or a long history of prior results. That makes this opportunity especially relevant for teams proposing new data streams (like social media APIs or search data), new analytic pipelines (like NLP classifiers), or new measurement strategies (like momentary assessments tied to digital exposures). The FOA is "clinical trial optional," meaning a proposed study may include a clinical trial if appropriate, but a clinical trial is not required.

On eligibility, the FOA is broadly open to many organization types, including state, county, city, and special district governments; public and private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) as well as small businesses; and other eligible entities. It 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), along with faith-based or community-based organizations and certain regional organizations. While the FOA mentions "Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations)," the eligibility restrictions clarified in the text state that non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities are not eligible to apply, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as defined by NIH policy) are not allowed. In other words, applicants should plan for the work to be led and conducted within eligible U.S.-based organizational structures without foreign components.

Key administrative details provided include that this is a discretionary grant opportunity from the National Institutes of Health under CFDA 93.395, categorized under education and health. The listing shows an award ceiling of $200,000, and the original closing date noted in the source data is June 13, 2019, with a creation date of February 7, 2018. Even if dates have passed for that particular cycle, the substance of the FOA reflects NIH priorities in modernizing cancer communication research, especially research that can keep pace with rapidly changing media platforms, evolving online behaviors, and the growing availability of large-scale digital trace data.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as an invitation to bring sophisticated, newer-generation methods to real problems in cancer communication, with a strong preference for approaches that can capture the complexity of the new media environment. Competitive applications would typically make a clear case that the chosen method (for example, NLP, social network analysis, or EMA) is essential to answering the research question, that the outcomes are meaningful to cancer prevention or control, and that the project is feasible as an exploratory R21 with the potential to lead to scalable, higher-impact work later.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Innovative Approaches to Studying Cancer Communication in the New Media Environment (R21 - Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.395.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-02-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-06-13. (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 $200,000.00 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 18 639

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