The purpose of this FOA is to invite applications to the NIH HEAL Initiative’s Clinical Pain Career Development Program (HCPDP). The HCPDP supports the NIH HEAL Initiative’s long-term goals of providing effective non-opioid options for the treatment of pain by addressing the increased need for clinical pain researchers.
The HCPDP will support early-career pain management researchers by developing a structured mentorship and career development program. The goal of this program is to ensure that a diverse pool of highly trained clinician-scientists is available to expand and enhance the clinical pain management workforce. In support of this goal, this FOA will provide the mentoring, oversight, support and training required to advance the careers of early-stage clinical pain researchers.
The HCPDP established under this FOA will support early career clinical pain scientists’ development as a means to enhance the clinical pain research workforce. The awarded HCPDP national program will provide the selected scholars with the experience, research support, and protected time for research and funding necessary to initiate a sustainable research program. In addition, the awarded HCPDP national program will create a K12 Advisory Committee (AC) whereby scholars will have the opportunity to interact with both experienced pain researchers and pain patients. The FOA will develop a national network of mentors and scholars.
A companion RFA, Coordinating Center for National Pain Scientists (CCNPS) (R24) (RFA-NS-22-046), has been released. The CCNPS will be a central facilitator for integrating training and mentoring across a network of mentors and early-stage investigators funded by NIH (e.g., NIH trainees, NIH fellows, and Career Development Awardees). The main purpose of the CCNPS is to enhance the training experience of new pain researchers across the continuum of basic, translational, and clinical research and create a vast network of NIH-funded pain researchers to promote multidisciplinary collaborations in pain research. The CCNPS will create and run a coordination center to connect NIH-funded pain researchers with each other with the goal of enhancing the innovation, relevance, and practical application of pain management research, as well as increase communication among pain management researchers across all disciplines. The K12 scholars and K12 AC will be expected to participate in the CCNPS annual meeting and networking events.