Research Funding Opportunity Announcement

Research Funding Opportunity Announcement

Evaluation of the Implementation and Effectiveness of Concussion Education and Awareness Programs: Special Focus on CDC Heads Up Concussion Initiative in Youth Sports

CDC released RFA-CE-15-005, Research to Evaluate the CDC Heads Up Concussion Initiative in Youth Sports. CDC Heads Up campaign is a series of educational initiatives that all share a common goal: help protect children and adolescents from concussions and other serious brain injuries and their potentially devastating effects.

CDC’s Injury Center intends to commit up to $1,650,000 total funding over the entire 3-year project period with a maximum of $550,000 per award per year. This funding will support one cooperative agreement to rigorously evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of concussion education and awareness programs that use CDC’s Heads Up training, toolkits, and other materials within local youth sports organizations (leagues, clubs) or high school sports. There is a strong preference for investigations targeted at youth sports organizations because of the limited evidence base developed with this population and the greater potential for a more rigorous research design. The primary benefit of the evaluation is to understand how local programs are implementing concussion education and initiatives, and the local benefit of those programs, so that sports organizations and schools can make local improvements.

Outcomes of interest include:

• Training and material use;
• Policy change (e.g., sports organization/school policies);
• Knowledge and attitudes change about concussion;
• Coach and athlete behavior; and
• Athlete health outcomes (e.g., negative health outcomes after one or more concussions).

Applications due: February 25, 2015.

• The funding opportunity announcement can be found at http://www.grants.gov/ or on the Injury Center funding opportunities announcement page at http://www.cdc.gov/injury/fundedprograms/foa/index.html. Note that amendments to the announcement focus and application dates are possible. Please check for updates on grants.gov.
• Learn more about CDC’s Heads Up campaign at www.cdc.gov/HeadsUp.