Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers (P50) | PAR 16 354

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 16 354

The Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers (P50) funding opportunity, issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports the creation of research centers designed to speed up real-world improvements in mental health care for both youth and adults. The intent is to fund highly integrated, transdisciplinary teams that can move beyond traditional single-project studies and instead run coordinated, high-impact research programs that directly strengthen clinical practice and help drive broad, system-level transformation in how mental health services are delivered across the United States.

At the core of ALACRITY is the idea of an "advanced laboratory" embedded in or closely linked to real treatment settings, where research can rapidly develop, test, and refine practical approaches that make mental health interventions work better and reach more people. The FOA emphasizes that these centers should generate actionable knowledge that improves outcomes and increases public health impact, not just produce incremental findings. Funded centers are expected to demonstrate an unusual level of collaboration and synergy across disciplines, with projects that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish through standard research project grant mechanisms.

The research scope centers on three connected goals. First, centers are expected to optimize the effectiveness of therapeutic or preventive interventions for mental disorders within clearly defined target populations, meaning the work should be precise about who is being helped and how outcomes will improve. Second, centers should focus on how to organize and deliver those optimized services in real-world settings, such as community clinics, health systems, schools, or other care environments where implementation challenges are common. Third, ALACRITY centers should build methods for continuous improvement, so that intervention and service delivery gains are not temporary but instead become durable, scalable, and responsive across diverse care systems over time.

The FOA calls for teams that combine expertise from clinical and mental health services research, behavioral and social sciences, and fields that can modernize and improve service delivery at scale. That includes health information and communications technology, health systems engineering, and decision science, alongside meaningful participation from mental health stakeholders such as service users, family members, clinicians, and payers. This structure reflects the program's focus on closing the gap between what is known to work and what is actually delivered in everyday practice, using practical designs, data-driven feedback loops, and system-aware strategies that can be sustained.

A key expectation is that ALACRITY centers will conduct T2 translational research, aimed at translating evidence-based interventions into routine care and improving their reach, quality, and long-term impact. In addition to producing research outcomes, the program is also meant to serve as a training and workforce development platform by creating opportunities for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and new investigators to participate in transdisciplinary mental health research, learning how to work across clinical science, implementation, technology, and health systems.

Eligibility for applicants is broad and includes many types of U.S.-based organizations and governmental entities. Eligible applicants listed include state, county, city, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations (including those other than federally recognized governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) as well as small businesses; and other organizations. The FOA also highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), faith-based or community-based organizations, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. While non-U.S. (foreign) institutions and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply, foreign components, as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed, which can enable certain international collaborations when appropriately structured under a U.S. applicant organization.

Administratively, this opportunity is identified as PAR 16-354, categorized as a discretionary grant under the health activity category, with CFDA number 93.242. The listed award ceiling is $1,000,000. The original closing date shown in the source data is January 23, 2018, and the opportunity was created July 6, 2016. Overall, the ALACRITY P50 centers mechanism is positioned to fund ambitious, integrated center-level programs that can rapidly iterate on intervention effectiveness, service delivery design, and continuous quality improvement, with the explicit goal of increasing the real-world reach and impact of mental health treatments in diverse U.S. care settings.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers (P50)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-07-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-01-23. (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 $1,000,000.00 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.

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