Funding for mHealth and Remotely Delivered Interventions

Increasingly, researchers are incorporating mobile health (mHealth) technologies to remotely deliver interventions, including complementary and integrative health interventions. These remotely delivered interventions may utilize phone delivery, app-based approaches, video delivery, web-based platforms, wearable devices, and/or new technologies. Investigators can combine remotely delivered approaches with in-person methods or choose to design a fully remotely delivered trial in which study participants have no in-person contact with study design.

NCCIH welcomes research on remotely delivered or mHealth interventions in all our clinical trial notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs). Choosing the right funding opportunity depends on the stage of intervention development, the approaches included in your intervention (e.g. mind and body, natural product, or multicomponent), and whether any in-person contact with research participants is proposed:

• For Intervention Refinement and Optimization Research of Remotely Delivered Interventions
  • To adapt an in-person intervention for remote delivery and/or establish feasibility for an mHealth intervention, PAR-25-274, Feasibility Clinical Trials of Mind and Body Interventions for NCCIH High Priority Research Topics (R34 Clinical Trial Required), is recommended. 
  • If the trial design of a remotely delivered intervention requires in-person data collection or assessments with research staff, PAR-25-267, NCCIH Multi-Site Feasibility Clinical Trials of Mind and Body Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required) is recommended to demonstrate that the intervention and data collection can be done with fidelity across sites. 
  • To determine the feasibility of remote delivery methods of natural products, PAR-24-115 NCCIH Natural Product Mid Phase Clinical Trial (R01 Clinical Trial Required) is recommended.
• For Efficacy and Effectiveness Research of Remotely Delivered Interventions
  • To test the efficacy or effectiveness of fully remotely delivered complementary and integrative health interventions, PAR-25-268, Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials of Complementary and Integrative Interventions Delivered Remotely or via mHealth (R01 Clinical Trial Required) is recommended. This funding opportunity requires that all data be collected remotely (i.e., no in-person contact between research staff and study participants). Please see the funding opportunity for the list of preliminary data requirements before developing an application. This funding opportunity is appropriate for remotely delivered mind and body, natural product, and/or multicomponent interventions.
  • To test the efficacy or effectiveness of a remotely delivered complementary or integrative health intervention that includes some in-person contact with participants (e.g., data collection or assessments), the UG3/UH3 with companion U24 applications for multisite clinical trials are recommended (i.e., PAR-24-275, Clinical Coordinating Center for NCCIH Multi-Site Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trials of Mind and Body Interventions [Collaborative UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required] and PAR-24-276, Data Coordinating Center for NCCIH Multi-Site Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trials of Mind and Body Interventions [Collaborative U24 Clinical Trial Required], or PAR-24-312, Clinical Coordinating Center for NCCIH Multi-Site Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trials of Natural Products [Collaborative UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required] and PAR-24-313, Natural Product Multi-Site Clinical Trial Data Coordinating Center [Collaborative U24 Clinical Trial Required]).

Please contact NCCIH program staff for any questions about which NOFO to select for mHealth and remotely delivered interventions.