Cooperative Research Agreements Related to the World Trade Center Health Program (U01)

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) supports research projects that address: (1) Physical and mental health conditions related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; (2) Diagnosing conditions for which there has been diagnostic uncertainty; and (3) Treating conditions for which there has been treatment uncertainty. Conditions could have emerged since the treatment program started or the WTC Health Program was created. This announcement will solicit meritorious and scientifically rigorous applications that will help: 1) improve diagnosis and treatment activities of the WTC Health Program; 2) expand knowledge about health effects related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; 3) answer critical questions about WTC-related physical and mental health conditions; and 4) apply lessons learned to improve response to future disasters. Potential projects may include, but are not limited to: (a) Screening research to evaluate current, or facilitate the development of, new/improved methods to detect certain disorders or health conditions.; (b) Diagnostic research to evaluate current, or facilitate the development of, new/improved, methods to identify diseases, disorders, or conditions; c) Treatment research to evaluate/identify improved treatment interventions/methods or promote the development of new or novel treatment approaches; (d) Prevention research to identify/evaluate new methods and interventions that prevent or mitigate the development or reoccurrence of various diseases/disorders; (e) Quality of Life research to identify, develop, or evaluate, methods/interventions that improve comfort and the quality of life for individuals with a chronic illness or multimorbidity; (f) Omics research to facilitate improvement in methods/procedures for the prediction of disorders by identifying and understanding how genes and illnesses may be related (e.g., identification of phenotypes and biomarkers). Research in this area may explore ways in which a persons genes make him or her more or less likely to develop a disorder or respond to a medication; (g) Epidemiological/clinical research to identify patterns, causes, and control of adverse health effects among the 9/11-exposed population; (h) health services research to examine how people get access to health care and care management services, how much care costs, and what happens to patients because of this care; (i) implementation research to evaluate the process whereby research outputs are disseminated, adopted, implemented, sustained, and scaled up in real-world settings for affected populations; and (j) epidemiological research to investigate emerging conditions in which preliminary data on a 9/11-exposed population are suggestive of, but inconclusive on, a causal relationship between 9/11 exposure and the health condition. Examples can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/received.html.