Intervention Research Grant

Eligibility Requirements

General Personal Criteria:

• The PI has a terminal research degree (PhD, ScD) or has an OTD or EdD with advanced research training (e.g., completion of a post-degree research fellowship).
• The PI is a credentialed occupational therapist with a full-time faculty position appointment or an equivalent research position at the time of application, OR a non-OT investigator with a primary academic appointment in an occupational therapy department.
• The PI is employed by a U.S. domestic, public or private, non-profit organization/institution that is eligible to receive Foundation research grants and will ensure its accountability and support for the project.
• The PI is a U.S. citizen or non-citizen national of the U.S. admitted for permanent residence, OR applied for permanent residence. (For non-citizens/visa holders, the applicant organization must have policies in place to determine whether residence status or visa status will allow completion of the research.)

The PI should have a funding history with early-stage, emerging, or early midcareer investigators, which may include small research grants and training-related or mentored career awards.*

AOTF will give preferential consideration to applications that utilize common data elements and include them in their grant applications where appropriate. NIH encourages the use of common data elements (CDEs) in clinical research, patient registries, and other human subject research in order to improve data quality and opportunities for comparison and combination of data from multiple studies and with electronic health records.

*An early career researcher is a Principal Investigator (PI) in the early stages of their independent research career, typically within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree (e.g., PhD, DSc) or equivalent training (such as a degree research fellowship for non-research degrees, e.g., OTD/EdD). A longer time frame may be more suitable for individuals who have spent a significant amount of time in non-research roles following their degree. These roles may include clinical practice, teaching-only academic positions, industry work (e.g., regulatory affairs or clinical operations), public health or policy practice, administrative or leadership positions, military or government service, entrepreneurial activities, or caregiving responsibilities. Eligible PIs are generally at the Lecturer, Instructor, Assistant Professor, or early Associate Professor level (or equivalent). Their funding history may include small research grants, mentored career development awards, or training-related mechanisms aligned with early-stage or emerging investigators.

Research Priorities

For all of our research grant programs, we are actively soliciting grant applications that examine racial, social, and health inequities and injustices and promote social justice. Grant applicants are now asked to address how they will involve participants from underrepresented populations. Plans for the inclusion of women and minorities must be included in the application or proposal and scientifically justified. Applications and proposals should describe the composition of the proposed study population in terms of sex/gender and racial/ethnic groups, and provide a rationale for the selection of such subjects. Any exclusions based on sex/gender or race/ethnicity must include an explanation and justification grounded in scientific or ethical rationale. Investigators should also plan appropriate outreach programs and activities to recruit and retain the proposed study population, consistent with the research project’s purposes.