Medical Simulators for Practicing Patient Care Providers Skill Acquisition, Outcomes Assessment and Technology Development (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PA 19 065

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 19 065

This NIH grant opportunity (PA-19-065) supports R01 research projects focused on medical simulation for practicing patient care providers, specifically experienced clinicians rather than students or trainees. The core aim is to strengthen patient safety and real-world healthcare outcomes by improving how simulation technologies help clinicians learn, maintain, assess, and refresh complex clinical skills over time. Importantly, it is labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning applicants need to propose research that does not meet NIH's definition of a clinical trial (for example, technology development, validation studies, and observational links between simulator performance and clinical care quality may fit, but interventional studies assigning people to different training conditions with health-related outcomes might not).

The FOA is organized around three major research tracks. The first is Skill Acquisition, which emphasizes developing and testing simulation-based strategies, training protocols, and practice schedules that help experienced clinicians acquire new skills or prevent skill decay in established skills. The emphasis here is on the unique needs of seasoned providers, such as maintaining proficiency in rarely performed high-risk procedures, learning updated techniques, or sustaining performance under stress and time pressure. Projects in this area typically look at questions like what kinds of simulation practice (distributed practice, deliberate practice, refresher intervals, feedback style, scenario design) best support long-term retention and reliable execution in actual clinical settings.

The second track is Outcomes Assessment, which targets the measurement side of simulation: how to use simulators to assess clinician competence in a way that is meaningful, reliable, and connected to the quality of care delivered. The FOA encourages research that examines the relationship between simulation-based assessment results and real clinical performance, with the goal of determining whether simulator metrics predict or correlate with patient care quality, safety events, procedural success, adherence to best practices, or other clinically relevant indicators. It also invites work to improve assessment quality itself, such as strengthening validity evidence, improving scoring rubrics, developing more sensitive performance metrics, reducing measurement noise, improving inter-rater reliability, and identifying assessment strategies that better reflect real-world complexity (teamwork, decision-making, situational awareness, and management of complications).

The third track is Technology Development, with a particular interest in "virtual coaches." This refers to enhancing existing simulation platforms by integrating intelligent or adaptive technologies that can guide experienced users while they practice. The idea is to move beyond passive simulation toward systems that provide tailored, context-aware coaching and cognitive assistance. Examples could include adaptive feedback that changes based on a clinician's demonstrated weaknesses, embedded tutoring that responds to decisions in real time, or AI-driven guidance that supports retraining and performance improvement while accounting for the clinical environment and, where relevant, the simulated physiology. The goal is practical performance support: tools that help clinicians retain competence, regain proficiency after time away, and improve performance efficiently without needing constant human instructor time.

Eligibility is broad and includes many standard U.S. applicant types: state, county, and local governments; special districts; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses; and other organizations. The announcement also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, AANAPISISs, tribally controlled colleges and universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, it restricts non-U.S. applicants: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible. However, "foreign components" are allowed under NIH policy, meaning a U.S.-based applicant may include certain well-justified international elements of the work if they meet NIH definitions and requirements.

Administratively, the funding instrument is a grant under the R01 mechanism, and the sponsoring agency is the National Institutes of Health. The opportunity is listed under CFDA numbers 93.286 and 93.847 and is categorized under health-related funding (the listing also references food and nutrition/health in the activity category). The original closing date shown is January 7, 2022, and the record creation date is November 13, 2018; applicants would need to confirm whether the FOA is still active, reissued, or replaced by a newer announcement, since NIH funding opportunities often roll over or are superseded.

Overall, the grant is essentially a call for rigorous, non-clinical-trial research that makes simulation more effective for experienced clinicians, improves how simulator performance is measured and connected to actual care quality, and advances the technology itself toward more intelligent, adaptive coaching systems that can help clinicians sustain high performance and reduce patient risk.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Medical Simulators for Practicing Patient Care Providers Skill Acquisition, Outcomes Assessment and Technology Development (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.286, 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-11-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-01-07. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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.

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