Intensive Longitudinal Analysis of Health Behaviors: Leveraging New Technologies to Understand Health Behaviors (U24) | RFA OD 17 005

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1) What is the title and funding opportunity number for this grant?

The opportunity is titled "Intensive Longitudinal Analysis of Health Behaviors: Leveraging New Technologies to Understand Health Behaviors (U24)" and the Funding Opportunity Number is RFA OD 17 005.

2) What type of funding mechanism is this?

This is an NIH cooperative agreement (U24). A cooperative agreement typically involves substantial scientific or programmatic involvement by the funding agency compared with a standard grant.

3) Who is offering this funding opportunity?

The opportunity is offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

4) What is the primary purpose of this award?

The award supports the creation of a single Research Coordinating Center (RCC) for the Intensive Longitudinal Health Behaviors Initiative. The RCC serves as the central organizing and technical hub for a collaborative network of research projects focused on intensive longitudinal data on health behaviors at the individual level.

5) Is this funding for a single research study?

No. Rather than funding one research study, this award primarily funds centralized coordination capacity needed to align multiple studies into a coherent initiative with shared practices and outputs.

6) How many awards does NIH expect to make?

The FOA anticipated making one award.

7) What is the award ceiling?

The award ceiling listed for this opportunity is $300,000.

8) What is an RCC in the context of this initiative?

The Research Coordinating Center (RCC) is the central infrastructure that helps a network function smoothly. It coordinates operations and provides technical and organizational support across participating projects, including communications, meetings, governance support, and cross-project methodological coordination.

9) What does "intensive longitudinal data" mean in this initiative?

Intensive longitudinal data collection refers to frequent or near-continuous measurement over extended periods. This includes repeated self-reports and real-time assessments as well as technology-enabled data streams that can capture behavior and context with high temporal resolution.

10) What kinds of technologies are relevant to the initiative?

The initiative describes using newer technologies and data streams enabled by tools such as mobile tools, sensors, and other devices that can capture behavior, context, and related signals with high temporal resolution.

11) What scientific focus does the network emphasize?

The network is intended to study factors that influence key health behaviors in ways that are sensitive to timing, context, and within-person dynamics. The approach is designed to capture moment-to-moment variability that can be missed with occasional surveys or traditional study designs.

12) Why does the FOA emphasize within-person dynamics?

The initiative is focused on understanding how health behaviors and their drivers change over time within people. This can reveal patterns that are difficult to detect when measurement is infrequent or when analyses focus mainly on differences between people rather than changes within the same person over time.

13) What are the RCC's core coordination responsibilities?

Based on the information provided, the RCC is expected to: manage communications across participating projects, organize meetings, support network governance, coordinate method-related work (including harmonization of measures and analytic approaches), enable data integration across multiple projects, and facilitate data dissemination to the broader research community when appropriate.

14) What does "harmonization" mean in this context?

Harmonization refers to developing or supporting shared measures and analytic approaches across studies so data can be compared or integrated across multiple projects within the network.

15) What is meant by "data integration across multiple projects"?

Data integration refers to enabling multiple studies in the network to combine or align their data in ways that support cross-project analyses, shared outputs, and broader reuse, consistent with the initiative's goals and dissemination plans when appropriate.

16) Does the initiative include data dissemination?

Yes. A stated goal is to strengthen the broader scientific community by enabling the dissemination of data, as appropriate, so other researchers can reuse, reanalyze, and build on shared resources.

17) What does "as appropriate" imply about data sharing?

The description indicates that data dissemination is intended when appropriate, meaning dissemination is part of the goal but may depend on context and network decisions. No additional specifics are provided in the supplied text.

18) How does this opportunity connect to behavioral theory?

A major goal is advancing behavioral theory by using intensive longitudinal results to refine, extend, or introduce innovations into longstanding behavioral theories. The initiative expects that improved measurement in real-world contexts, combined with modern analytic methods, can test whether existing theories explain behavior as it unfolds in daily life.

19) How could this initiative affect behavior change interventions?

Insights from the network are expected to contribute to designing more effective, theory-driven behavior change interventions by improving the conceptual models that guide intervention development and evaluation.

20) What categories is this opportunity listed under?

Administratively, the opportunity is categorized under Education and Health.

21) When was the opportunity created and when did it close?

The opportunity was created on March 22, 2017. The original closing date listed is January 7, 2018.

22) Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic organizations and governmental entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments and other Native American tribal organizations; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in those nonprofit categories as specified); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other entities as clarified in the announcement's additional eligibility information.

23) What kinds of organizations are likely positioned to host the RCC?

The eligibility structure reflects the expectation that the coordinating center could be housed in a range of research-capable environments, including universities, research institutes, and other organizations with the operational capacity to manage network-scale coordination, data-related infrastructure, and cross-project collaboration.

24) What are the CFDA numbers associated with this announcement?

The CFDA numbers listed are 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.393, and 93.399.

25) What is the overarching initiative called?

The RCC is for the Intensive Longitudinal Health Behaviors Initiative.

26) What is the practical research shift emphasized by this opportunity?

In practical terms, the initiative emphasizes capturing how health behaviors and their drivers change over time within people using frequent or near-continuous measurement, rather than relying only on occasional surveys or traditional designs that may miss moment-to-moment variability.