This Notice of Special Interest highlights the urgent need for social, behavioral, economic, health communication, and epidemiologic research relevant to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. This Notice encourages urgent competitive supplements and administrative supplements to existing longitudinal studies that address key social and behavioral questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including adherence to and transmission mitigation from various containment and mitigation efforts; social, behavioral, and economic impacts from these containment and mitigation efforts; and downstream health impacts resulting from these social, behavioral, and economic impacts, including differences in risk and resiliency based on gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health.

NICHD has particular interest in COVID-19-related research on vulnerable populations falling within the NICHD scientific mission area, including pregnant and post-partum women, infants, children, and adolescents; individuals with physical and/or intellectual disabilities; and children who are homeless or in foster care.

NICHD also has particular interest in outcomes falling within its mission, including child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, learning outcomes, maternal, infant, child, and adolescent morbidity and mortality, changes in fertility and pregnancy outcomes, and access to health care, including reproductive health care.

Additional research topics of interest to NICHD that fall within the scope of this Notice include, but are not limited to:

• The roles of living arrangements and family and household characteristics and processes, social and community influences, and social networks on COVID-19-related vulnerabilities, responses, and outcomes.
• Differential impacts of and responses to COVID-19, COVID-19 mitigation efforts and downstream effects mitigation on specific subpopulations, for example, groups defined by age, race/ethnicity, urban/rural location or socioeconomic status.
• Studies of increased usage of telemedicine for routine well baby and pediatric health and developmental screenings and their impact on immunization schedules on child and adolescent health outcomes.
• Studies of the digital divide—children and families without reliable access to the internet now that schools and libraries have closed, and impact on health behaviors and outcomes as well as health care access.
• Studies on increased screen time, digital media use and rapid conversion to homeschooling/distance learning on child and adolescent cognitive and social-emotional development, peer interactions and family functioning.
• Studies examining risk factors, resilience and coping for families experiencing multiple stressors (e.g., health, economic and emotional) and symptomology (e.g., anxiety, depression) and the short and long-term sequelae for child, adolescent and family functioning.

For more information:
NOT-OD-20-097: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) regarding the Availability of Administrative Supplements and Urgent Competitive Revisions for Research on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus and the Behavioral and Social Sciences
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-20-097.html#.XpnW4-GqhVU.twitter