Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence (U54 Clinical Trial Optional)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to participate as a Research Center as part of the Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to generate innovative approaches to address preventable maternal mortality, decrease severe maternal morbidity, and promote maternal health equity in partnership with communities that are most affected (i.e., Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, sexual and gender minorities, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and underserved rural populations). This initiative will use an integrated multi-level approach encompassing social and biobehavioral research strategies to address the multiple contributing factors that lead to adverse maternal health outcomes and health disparities. Significant contributing factors include comorbid conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, mental illness, and substance use disorders) and social determinants of health, which include structural racism and health care system factors. The goal of this initiative is for trans-disciplinary researchers to conduct multi-layered novel research approaches that will have the potential to drastically reduce pregnancy-related and pregnancy-associated maternal deaths and decrease severe maternal morbidity. Studies may be interventional (including effectiveness, comparative effectiveness, optimization, or dissemination and implementation studies), or observational (including health services studies, natural experiments, policy analyses) and may assess both short-term and long-term maternal health outcomes. The Research Centers will be uniquely poised to collaborate on studies and projects with other networks and initiatives such as the NICHD Neonatal Research Network and the NICHD Maternal and Pediatric Precision in Therapeutics (MPRINT) initiative.