Healthy Habits: Timing for Developing Sustainable Healthy Behaviors in Children and Adolescents (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | PA 18 355

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 18 355

Healthy Habits: Timing for Developing Sustainable Healthy Behaviors in Children and Adolescents (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) is a National Institutes of Health funding opportunity issued by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) to support Research Project Grant (R01) studies focused on how healthy behaviors form and stick during childhood and adolescence, from birth through age 18. The central emphasis is on identifying the mechanisms that shape positive, lasting health behaviors and on testing strategies that can strengthen those behaviors over time. While clinical trials are allowed under this announcement, they are not required, which leaves room for a wide range of study designs from basic and mechanistic work through intervention development and evaluation.

The opportunity is built around the idea that early life is a critical window for establishing patterns that can influence health across the lifespan. NINR is looking for innovative research that can explain when and how children and teens adopt healthy routines and habits, and what kinds of influences make those habits more durable. Examples of target behaviors include healthy sleep routines, self-regulation skills (such as managing emotions and impulses), safer decision-making in risky situations, consistent dental hygiene, balanced nutrition, regular age-appropriate physical activity, and building or maintaining healthy relationships. The intent is not just to encourage one-off behavior change, but to understand the processes that lead to sustainable, habitual behaviors that persist as young people develop.

A major feature of this FOA is its focus on the social and cultural contexts that shape behavior. NINR explicitly encourages applications that intervene in, measure, or otherwise account for real-world environments such as schools, families, neighborhoods and communities, and broader population-level influences. It also highlights systems and industries that may affect behavior, including the food industry, as well as age-appropriate learning tools like games and interactive educational materials. Modern communication channels are a major priority area, including social media, social networking platforms, technology-based tools, and mass media, reflecting the role these channels play in shaping norms, attention, motivation, and daily routines for children and adolescents.

The specific topics NINR wants applicants to address include several connected questions. One is what processes most effectively and sustainably influence young people to choose healthier behaviors, meaning approaches that do more than produce short-term improvement and instead create lasting change. Another is timing: identifying the most appropriate developmental stage or stages when influences are most likely to lead to lifelong healthy habits. The FOA also calls for research on how technology and new media can be used to promote health behavior development, whether through apps, digital interventions, online communities, wearable devices, interactive media, or other technology-enabled strategies. In addition, NINR is interested in factors that support healthy behavior development in vulnerable populations, which can include groups facing social, economic, geographic, health, or structural barriers that make healthy choices harder to initiate or maintain. Finally, the FOA encourages research that identifies shared mechanisms and mediators across multiple health behaviors, for example common drivers like self-regulation, stress response, social norms, family routines, access to resources, or peer influence that may simultaneously affect sleep, diet, physical activity, and other habitual behaviors.

Because the development of sustained health behavior is influenced by many layers of biology, psychology, family dynamics, community conditions, and policy or media environments, the FOA strongly encourages multidisciplinary research teams and specifically notes the value of including nurse scientists. The overarching goal is to generate research findings that can identify and strengthen the processes that support enduring positive behaviors or, at a broader level, change social and cultural norms that shape current and future health behaviors.

From an eligibility and administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary grant program under the NIH umbrella with an education and health activity focus and CFDA number 93.361. A wide range of applicants are eligible, including state, county, and local governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) as well as small businesses; and other entities. The announcement also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), faith-based and community-based organizations, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), reflecting a broad interest in diverse settings and populations.

In short, this FOA funds R01 research that explains and improves how healthy habits take root in children and adolescents, with special attention to developmental timing, sustained impact, technology and media influences, vulnerable populations, and cross-cutting mechanisms that can drive multiple positive health behaviors at once.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Healthy Habits: Timing for Developing Sustainable Healthy Behaviors in Children and Adolescents (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.361.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-11-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-01-07. (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.

Apply for PA 18 355

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: