The Emergency Medicine Foundation, in collaboration with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, invites proposals for the "Pre-Hospital Noninvasive Respiratory Support" grant to advance research in acute respiratory failure (ARF) managed by emergency medical services (EMS). With a funding award of $100,000 and only one grant to be issued, this opportunity seeks to fill significant knowledge gaps in prehospital care for patients experiencing ARF who might benefit from nasal high flow (NHF) therapy. The goal is to define the scope of respiratory distress in the prehospital environment and provide a foundation for future interventional trials.
Respiratory distress is a leading cause of emergency department visits and hospital admissions, contributing substantially to health care costs and mortality. Current noninvasive respiratory support strategies—including CPAP, BiPAP, and NHF—are traditionally chosen based on differentiated clinical phenotypes such as COPD or heart failure. However, most patients presenting with ARF are undifferentiated, especially in prehospital settings, making targeted intervention complex and under-researched.
This grant opportunity is aimed at defining the patient population and EMS care landscape for those with ARF who could benefit from NHF. Applicants are expected to estimate EMS-transported cases of respiratory distress, assess geographic and service-level variability, and determine patient outcomes and etiologies. Applications may leverage the ESO dataset, a comprehensive EMS database, for data-driven insights. The research must be IRB-approved and demonstrate institutional capability for project execution.
Eligible principal investigators must hold primary faculty appointments in Emergency Medicine and show evidence of support from their department, including access to necessary patients or datasets. Applications will be reviewed for significance, strategy, feasibility, and innovation. Successful proposals will advance to funding decisions by the EMF Board of Trustees, with awards announced in June 2026 and funding distributed from July 2026 to June 2027.
The application process involves two key steps: a Letter of Intent (due October 31, 2025) and the full application (due December 12, 2025). Submissions must follow strict formatting and documentation requirements and be submitted online via the EMF portal. Progress reports and participation in a grantee workshop and ACEP Research Forum are mandatory components of the post-award process. For additional questions, applicants may contact Cynthia Singh at csingh@acep.org.
Strict formatting required; incomplete or noncompliant applications will be rejected
