Healthcare Access & Health Outcomes RFP

Overview

Healthcare Access & Health Outcomes RFP

The Arthritis Foundation is committed to improving healthcare access and health outcomes for all people living with arthritis. This program provides seed funding to support innovative and impactful research projects intended to identify or test interventions to improve healthcare access and health outcomes for populations and communities where access and outcomes are not up to the highest standards. Populations or communities may be defined by geographic, social, language, demographic, economic, or other factors. Projects may center on access and outcomes across arthritis broadly or within specific indications including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, and spondyloarthropathies. Projects may be up to 2 years in duration, and budgets up to $85,000 in total (inclusive of 8% indirect costs).

Eligibility

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Application Details

2025 Healthcare Access & Health Outcomes
Request for Proposals (RFP)
Arthritis Foundation Science Department
RFP Overview
Funding Organization(s) The Arthritis Foundation
Funding Opportunity The Arthritis Foundation is committed to improving healthcare access
Purpose and health outcomes for all people living with arthritis. This funding
opportunity aims to support this aspiration.
Specifically, this program provides seed funding to support innovative
and impactful research projects intended to identify or test
interventions to improve healthcare access and health outcomes for
populations and communities where access and outcomes are not up
to the highest standards. Impact, novelty and feasibility will be weighed
heavily. Populations or communities may be defined by geographic,
social, language, demographic, economic, or other factors. Projects
may center on access and outcomes across arthritis broadly or within
specific indications including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis,
psoriatic arthritis, gout, and spondyloarthropathies.
Budget Up to $85,000 inclusive of direct costs and indirect costs (indirects are
limited to a value less than or equal to 8% of the total award value).
Funds may be used for items including: salary, supplies, participant
incentives, recruitment costs, community partner compensation and/or
other support.
Funds may not be used for capital equipment.
Period of Performance Up to 2 years
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Eligibility Eligible applicants include faculty members with an interest in
rheumatic diseases and/or rheumatology fellows who have completed
the first year of clinical training and are embarking on their research
training. Rheumatology fellows are encouraged to collaborate with an
established full-time faculty member. Multi-PI proposals, including
fellows, with at least one PI affiliated with a Division of Rheumatology,
are welcome.
PIs with an active Arthritis Foundation grant are only eligible to apply if it
is determined, at the LOI stage, that there is no overlap between the
active grant and the proposed project. Contact Arthritis Foundation
staff at AFscience@arthritis.org with any questions.
Non-US Based Institutions Are Not Eligible.
RFP Process Overview The first stage of the submission process will be a Letter of Intent (LOI).
Following LOI review, top applicants will be invited to submit Full
Proposals.
Key Dates
LOI Post Date Monday, February 24, 2025
LOI Due Date Monday, April 14, 2025, 2:00 pm Eastern Time Zone
Invitations for Full On or before Wednesday, May 14, 2025, Arthritis Foundation will send
Proposals out invitations to select applicants who will be invited to submit full
proposals.
Full Proposal Submission Thursday, July 24, 2025, 2:00 pm Eastern Time Zone
Date
Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to
make any corrections to errors found in the application during the
submission process by the due date.
Award Notification No later than Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Earliest Work Start Monday, January 5, 2026
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Scope
Topics of Interest
While innovations in diagnostics and therapeutics have improved outcomes for many people living
with arthritis in the US, these gains have not reached everyone. Therefore, we welcome research
proposals to 1) better understand why this is the case or, 2) identify or test interventions that could
improve healthcare access or health outcomes for populations or communities where access and
outcomes are not up to the highest standards.
Out of Scope Topics
Basic and / or translational research including work focused on biomarkers or biological mechanisms
of disease.
Letter of Intent
The Letter of Intent (LOI) is the first step of this application. The 1-page LOI should 1) describe the fit of
the proposed project to the overarching goals of this program, 2) include a hypothesis and specific
aims, 3) summarize at a high level the impact you expect from the work, and 4) briefly describe the
roles of the individual team members (including patient representatives or patient research partners if
relevant). After review of the submitted LOIs, top applicants will be invited to submit a Full Proposal.
Full Proposal
Full Proposals are by invitation only.
Full Proposal Content
a. Research Proposal (limit 5 pages, not including references)
b. CVs of PIs
c. Description of Division and/or PI’s past efforts and/or interest in healthcare access and health
outcomes, if any, along with an overview of factors indicating that the Division, PI, and/or study
team have the necessary connections and expertise to effectively work with the community or
population described in the Research Proposal. (limit 1 page)
d. Division Chief/Department Chair letter of support including confirmation of salary support for PI
(Only one letter will be accepted and may not exceed 1 page in length.)
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Review Criteria
• Applications will be scored by a peer-review panel, in consultation with patient advocates
and Arthritis Foundation staff.
• Full Proposal Evaluation Criteria
1. Significance / anticipated impact
2. Innovation
3. Feasibility of the research plan / methodology
4. Engagement of patients
5. Plan for sustained impact
• Grantees will be selected based on strength of alignment to the goals, eligibility parameters
and evaluation criteria described above.
Selection and Award Management
A formal email Notification of Selection will be provided to the applicant for successful applications.
This notification is not an authorization to begin performance. Any costs incurred before contract
signature are at the applicant’s risk. Contracts must be signed by Institution and PI within 60 days of
notification or the Arthritis Foundation reserves the right to rescind the offer to fund.
Awardees will be required to submit Progress Reports and Accounting Reports annually via
ProposalCentral in addition to Final Progress and Accounting Reports once the project is complete.
Individual awards are based on the application submitted to, and as approved by, the Arthritis
Foundation and are subject to the specific terms and conditions identified in the signed Award
Agreement.
Submission
• All LOIs and full applications will be submitted using ProposalCentral, the Arthritis Foundation’s
online grants management portal, available at https://proposalcentral.com/
• All applications must be submitted by 2:00 PM Eastern time (Atlanta, GA) on the deadline
date.
• Any application submitted after deadline, incomplete, or failing to otherwise adhere to
instructions will be administratively declined.
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Formatting
• Margins should be greater than or equal to 1/2" on all sides.
• Font size should be no less than 12 points. Font must be Arial.
• Applications must be written in English and formatted such that, if printed, would print to
8.5”x11” paper.
• Please be mindful of the page limits for each section.
• PDF file formats are preferred. In order to allow for administrative notes to be added, editing
permissions must not be restricted and files must not be password protected.
Questions and Additional Information
We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer
questions from potential applicants. For all inquiries including general grants information and
questions regarding application instructions, application, and processes, please email:
AFscience@arthritis.org
For technical assistance with ProposalCentral, please call 1.800.875.2562 (toll-free U.S. and Canada)
or 703.964.5840 (Direct Dial International) or email: pcsupport@altum.com. Customer service is open
Monday-Friday, 8:30am-5:00pm Eastern.
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