On January 1, 2022, UK Research updated FAQs to reflect Tier 4 UK HealthCare status impacting site monitor policies. In general, if you are conducting research that is NOT taking place at a UK HealthCare facility, you must follow institutional guidance in the Spring 2022 Guidebook. If you are conducting research at a UK HealthCare facility, you must follow UK HealthCare requirements. Send questions to research-covid@uky.edu.

The UK AI in Medicine Research Alliance, the Institute for Biomedical Informatics, and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science Call for Applications

The UK artificial intelligence (AI) in Medicine Research Alliance (AIM), in partnership with Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) and Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI), is accepting applications for Pilot Projects.

The goal of the CCTS-AIM-IBI Pilot Program is to boost scientific discovery in medicine and promote new standards of care, and clinical and population impact via data generated in clinical care and translational research. The AIM Alliance will advance data-driven science across health-centered Research Priority Areas (RPAs) as defined by the UK Vice president for research, which include cancer, neuroscience, energy, substance use disorder, cardiovascular disease, diabetes & obesity, and substance use disorder. This will potentially open new areas of transdisciplinary research inquiry on AI applications in medicine. The program will also increase extramural funding at the University of Kentucky in areas of AI and applications in medicine.

The purpose of this funding mechanism is to support development of AI research teams with the resources to compete for externally funded grant awards by providing pilot or preliminary data to support grant applications, manuscripts, and new research teams with focus on applying AI in medicine, especially these RPAs. We encourage the inclusion of a specific notice of funding announcement or grant call.

The awards co-funded by CCTS, AIM and IBI will be $10,000-$25,000 which must be spent over six to 12 months.

The application deadline is January 31, 2022

This award is open to investigators in the UK faculty eligible to submit and receive externally funded grants. We encourage potential applicants to work with the AIM Leadership to identify a mentoring/collaborating team to assist the investigator.

Description: The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to develop new methods, approaches, and/or tools to apply to existing data streams (e.g., electronic health records, syndromic surveillance, claims data, registry data, pharmacy dispensing, and mortality records) that could provide novel insights into the dynamics of opioid and prescription drugs misuse, addiction, recovery, relapse, and recovery to facilitate rapid understanding of the opioid epidemic for prevention and treatment or to develop methods for small area estimation that inform decisions of local (e.g., substate) jurisdictions. It will emphasize approaches that shorten the lags between data capture and data availability so the data is available real-time or near real-time to provide actionable insights, and methods and tools that improve efficiency and practical use of surveillance, clinical or other relevant data that may allow for faster or better localized responses or better allocation of resources to address the opioid epidemic.

Announcement Number: RFA-DA-22-044

Closing Date: March 10, 2022

Purpose: The purpose of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) FY 2022 Rural Communities Opioid Response Program Behavioral Health Care Technical Assistance (RCORP-BHCTA) is to provide TA to rural consortiums engaging in activities to address behavioral health care issues, including substance use disorders (SUD). The TA will strengthen rural organizations’ capacity to develop multi-sector consortia that can plan, implement, and sustain programs that improve access to and quality of behavioral health care services, including substance use disorder (SUD)/opioid use disorder (OUD) services, in rural areas.

For the purposes of this cooperative agreement, improving rural behavioral health care service delivery includes increasing access to and utilization of prevention, treatment, and recovery services to improve health care for those affected by behavioral health conditions, which may include substance use and mental health disorders. Evidence-based prevention strategies improve health care in rural communities by reducing the strain on the rural health care system while also providing a cost-effective way of addressing and minimizing the individual and societal costs of behavioral health disorders. This cooperative agreement will continue and enhance the TA efforts that began in 2018 for the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP), a multi-year HRSA initiative aimed at reducing the morbidity and mortality of SUD, including OUD, in high-risk rural communities through the provision of prevention, treatment, and recovery services.

Note: Because the cooperative agreement recipient will be expected to provide technical assistance to RCORP award recipients across the 50 U.S. states as well as in the U.S. territories/freely associated states, applications that are not nationwide in scope may be considered non-responsive, and may not be considered for funding. Applicants must submit an attestation in Attachment 6 which affirms that the proposed project is nationwide in scope, inclusive of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories and freely associated states. HRSA expects to make one cooperative agreement award.

Funding Amount/ Project Period: up to $10,000,000 total costs per year for 4 years

Internal Competition: To participate in the university’s selection process, please upload the following, assembled into a single PDF file, to the Office of the Vice President for Research via this portal with a copy to your Associate Dean for Research by January 25, 2022:

• Names and departments or affiliations of the Project Director and other key personnel or partners
• Title of program and/or funding opportunity announcement number
• Brief project description (2 pages maximum)
• Brief biographical sketch

A committee will be convened to review the material and make a recommendation.

For questions or issues with submission through the portal, email the limited submission mailbox (limitedsubmissions@uky.edu), or call 257-2861.

Agency Deadline: March 9, 2022  

Purpose: The purpose of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) (FY) 2022 Regional Public Health Training Centers (PHTC) Program is to increase the number of individuals in the public health workforce, enhance the quality of such workforce, and improve the ability of the workforce to meet national, state, and local health care needs. This program aims to strengthen the public health workforce through tailored training and technical assistance (TA) through collaborative community-based projects involving state and local health departments, primary care providers, and related organizations (to include nontraditional partners) to help address critical local public health needs.

Eligibility: Accredited schools of public health or another public or public nonprofit institutions accredited for the provision of graduate or specialized training in public health

Funding Amount/ Project Period: up to $1,105,000 per year, for 4 years (based on Kentucky’s inclusion in Region 4 PHTC program)

Institutional Limit:  1

Internal Competition: Internal coordination will be handled by the College of Public Health. Individuals interested in this program should contact Doris Castellanos, Assistant Dean for Research Operations (doris.castellanos@uky.edu or Dean Donna Arnett (donna.arnett@uky.edu).

For questions, email the limited submission mailbox (limitedsubmissions@uky.edu), or call 257-2861.

Agency Deadline: January 24, 2022