NIH Calls for Applications to Research Firearms Injury and Mortality Prevention


March 2020

On March 20, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) issued a notice of special interest to solicit applications for one-year supplemental grants for research on firearms injury and mortality prevention.

Current NIH grantees with funding through the R01 and R21 program are eligible to apply to expand their research to examine their ongoing awards for studying the underlying causes and evidence-based methods of prevention of firearm injury. Applications are due on May 15.

Research topics that could be funded under this notice include, among others:

  • Improving the ability to identify individuals at risk for firearm injury and mortality, including by suicide, homicide, and accidental injury and mortality.
  • Developing, validating, and studying implementation procedures to determine who should be screened and how to screen accurately and efficiently for risk of firearm injury and mortality.
  • Improving understanding of developmental and contextual factors associated with firearm injury and mortality that extends individual risk assessment, to include situational factors such as use of alcohol or substances, among other factors, as well as multiple levels including peers, family, community, and structural determinants, and interactions across these levels.
  • Understanding potential factors that could be enhanced to reduce the negative effects of risk exposure (e.g., resilience).
  • Developing and piloting test innovative and culturally competent interventions delivered online, in healthcare, and/or community settings (e.g., schools/childcare, workplaces, justice settings, social service or public health agencies, assisted living facilities) to prevent injury and mortality and revictimization/repeat injury or retaliatory firearm violence among those at risk.

The final FY 2020 appropriations language included $50 million for firearms injury and mortality research, split evenly between the Centers for Disease Control and NIH. AERA joined more than 200 organizations on a letter sent to House and Senate appropriations leaders on March 30 requesting that $50 million be included for public health research on firearm morbidity and mortality research in FY 2021.