Phased Large Awards for Comparative Effectiveness Research PCORI Funding Announcement -- Cycle 1 2026

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Applications Under Review Phased Large Awards for Comparative Effectiveness Research PCORI Funding Announcement -- Cycle 1 2026

Research

Cycle 1 2026 Key Dates PFA Opened

Dec. 2, 2025 Applicant Town Hall

View recording/slides Letter of Intent (LOI) Deadline

Jan. 6, 2026; 5 pm (ET) LOI Status Notification

Feb. 3, 2026 Application Deadline

May. 5, 2026; 5 pm (ET)

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This PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA) invites applications for high impact patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) projects that will address critical decisions faced by patients, families, caregivers, clinicians, and the health and healthcare community and for which there is insufficient evidence.

Investigators must propose an individual-level or cluster randomized controlled trial of significant scale and scope for this PFA. The proposed trials should address critical decisional dilemmas that require important new evidence about the comparative clinical effectiveness of available interventions. Proposed studies should compare interventions that already have robust evidence of efficacy and are in current use. If efficacy is not well established, then widespread use must be documented. Clinical interventions (such as medications, diagnostic tests, or procedures) and delivery system interventions (such as workforce, technologies and healthcare service delivery designs) are appropriate for these studies.

Research proposed under this PFA will require two phases of funding. The initial phase of funding supports a feasibility phase intended for study refinement, infrastructure establishment, patient and stakeholder engagement, and testing of study operations, including the ability to recruit, enroll, and randomize participants successfully. Using the feasibility phase to establish evidence of an intervention’s efficacy or effect size is not permitted. Approval to proceed to the full-scale trial phase will be contingent on achieving specific milestones and deliverables established for the feasibility phase. Research Project Agenda Topic Themes

PCORI's Research Project Agenda comprises a set of Topic…

Topic areas: Life Sciences and Health, Public Policy and Governance.

Funding amount

This grant provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no single fixed deadline.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Not specified by the program.

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

Phased Large Awards for Comparative Effectiveness Research PCORI Funding Announcement -- Cycle 1 2026 is administered by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), listed via Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.