The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) intends to promote a new initiative by publishing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for research on how mind and body interventions (e.g., mindfulness meditation, yoga, acupuncture, massage, and other brain and/or body based interventions) improve whole person health (WPH) via emotional well-being (EWB), consistent with the NIH priority to address the health needs of the American people and improve their well-being.

Health and disease exist on a continuum, wherein a person can move toward or away from a state of health. The process by which individuals travel along this continuum from a less healthy state to a healthier state can be referred to as health restoration. One way to assess health restoration is to explore potential positive changes in WPH. One such way to measure WPH restoration is through the WPH Index Patient Reported Measure, created by NCCIH in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consisting of nine domains: overall health, quality of life, social and family connections, physical activity, diet, stress management, sleep, sense of meaning and purpose, and health management.

Mind and body interventions have been shown to improve a range of physical and mental disorders, but the biological mechanisms by which they exert their beneficial effects to restore whole person health remain unknown. EWB, characterized by positive emotions, has been associated with better health, including improved recovery and survival from physical illness. However, there are very few studies assessing the impact of complementary and integrative health approaches, including mind and body interventions, on EWB mechanisms and their potential for restoring WPH. 

The NOFO will address these fundamental knowledge gaps by supporting rigorous, well-powered, and innovative mechanistic research studies with strong preliminary data to understand the relationships between mind and body interventions, mechanisms of EWB (primary outcome), and whole person health (secondary outcome). To enhance research safety, rigor, and cost efficiency of NIH-funded mechanistic clinical trials, this initiative will utilize a two-phased award funding mechanism (R61/R33). It will support an initial phase (R61) to establish feasibility benchmarks for the proposed mechanistic clinical trial(s), followed by a second phase (R33) to complete the full-scale trials contingent on successful completion of R61 milestones. The desired preliminary data for the R61 phase should be otherwise equivalent to an R01 application.

This NOFO encourages innovative and independent research approaches as well as interdisciplinary collaborations of mind and body researchers, clinicians, biologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, physiologists, and beyond, fostering innovation, academic freedom, and collaboration to advance the missions of both NIH in general and NCCIH in particular. 

Government

• Public and Indian housing authorities
• State governments
• County governments
• Federally recognized Native American tribal governments

Business

• For-profit organizations other than small businesses
• Small businesses

Education

• Private institutions of higher education
• Public and state institutions of higher education
• Independent school districts

Nonprofit

• Other Native American tribal organizations
• Nonprofits non-higher education with 501(c)(3)