The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has announced the launch of a three-year initiative and commitment of up to $36 million to strengthen and enhance the evidence base on engagement in research.

Launched with the posting of an initial Science of Engagement PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA) that offers up to $4.5 million for foundational research, the initiative is aimed at strengthening the nation’s patient-centered clinical research enterprise. To that end, it will fund research focused on effective ways to measure and conduct meaningful engagement.

PCORI welcomes a broad range of potential study designs, including comparative effectiveness, observational, and mixed method studies and those that take advantage of naturally occurring variation in engagement methods, and it anticipates future Science of Engagement PFAs will advance evidence regarding the mechanisms by which engagement techniques contribute to research studies’ processes and outcomes and test which approaches are most effective. In addition, PCORI plans to build a toolbox of validated engagement measures.

“We look forward to working with researchers, patients, and stakeholders to advance the nascent science of engagement field,” said PCORI executive director Nakela L. Cook. “This vital work is central to PCORI’s mission. It is a natural evolution of our decade of funding patient-centered research and will contribute to further development of an evidence base to support more strategic approaches to promoting robust engagement in research and greater inclusion and diversity in health research.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/KatarzynaBialasiewicz)