HEAL Initiative Partnerships to Advance INterdisciplinary (PAIN) Training in Clinical Pain Research: The HEAL PAIN Cohort Program (T90/R90 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This concept would support the development of pain clinical trainees as a means of enhancing the clinical pain workforce. It would fund 4 clinical pain T90/R90s that would provide robust post-doctoral fellowship research training in areas of clinical pain management that would benefit from further research. The T90/R90 mechanism is a NRSA program that supports comprehensive interdisciplinary research training programs at the undergraduate, predoctoral, and/or post-doctoral levels by capitalizing on the infrastructure of existing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research programs. The HEAL T90/R90 program would focus on training post-doctoral fellows with T90 trainees being those who are NRSA eligible and R90 trainees (maximum of 1 per award per year) being those who do not meet qualifications for NRSA support (including non-US citizens or residents). Trainees would either need to have a clinical degree or have a non-clinical degree but are interested in conducting clinical pain research. The T90/R90 training programs would provide mentoring and training to promote the successful transition of the trainees to independent research careers in academic or government settings. Unlike the T32 mechanism, the T90/R90 mechanism would support the dedication of 10% of the programs mentors time to mentoring the next generation of clinical pain researchers. The newly funded T90/R90s would work in coordination with the HEAL R24 Coordinating Center to ensure that trainees participate in the network, collaborative events/webinars, build relationships with basic and clinical science trainees, and attend the annual workshop. The NIH will prioritize funding T90/R90s universities and institutions that do not currently have a pain T32 or have not previously received funding for a pain T32. T90/R90 applicants are encouraged to partner with another university or institution to help increase the interdisciplinary nature of the mentors and trainees.