Public Policy Effects on Alcohol-, Marijuana-, and Other Substance-Related Behaviors and Outcomes (R21) | PA 17 132

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 17 132

Public Policy Effects on Alcohol-, Marijuana-, and Other Substance-Related Behaviors and Outcomes (R21) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) discretionary grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number PA-17-132; CFDA 93.273) that supports short, exploratory research projects focused on how public policies shape substance-related behaviors and downstream health and social outcomes. The central goal is to strengthen what is known about public policy as a practical lever for improving public health and welfare, specifically through its influence on alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use patterns and the consequences that follow. The announcement is framed around generating evidence that can matter in real-world decision-making, with an emphasis on innovative questions and designs that can detect meaningful population-level changes tied to policy action.

The FOA is meant for studies that directly test the effects of policies, rather than simply describing trends. It explicitly encourages causal analyses of one policy or multiple interacting policies, recognizing that substance-related outcomes are often shaped by layered rules and environments (for example, combined effects of pricing/taxation, availability restrictions, enforcement practices, advertising limits, retail regulations, minimum legal age rules, impaired driving laws, prescription monitoring requirements, decriminalization/legalization frameworks, or treatment and harm-reduction policies). Alongside causal policy impact studies, the FOA invites evaluations of how effective specific policy tools are at improving public health through changes in behaviors and outcomes. It also supports methodological and measurement research that improves how policy exposure is defined, quantified, and linked to behavioral and health outcomes, since policy research often hinges on accurately timing policy implementation, measuring enforcement intensity, and capturing heterogeneous exposure across places and subpopulations.

Because this is an R21 mechanism, the program is oriented toward early-stage, developmental, and potentially high-impact projects that can open up new lines of inquiry, test novel approaches, or generate strong preliminary evidence that may later justify larger confirmatory studies. In practice, that often means leveraging natural experiments, quasi-experimental designs, policy discontinuities, differences-in-differences frameworks, interrupted time series, synthetic controls, instrumental variables, or other approaches suited to real-world policy variation. The FOA is also a natural fit for work that improves policy surveillance data, builds stronger policy datasets or indices, refines measures of policy implementation and enforcement, or develops better outcome measurement strategies across health, safety, and social domains.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of applicants across government, academia, nonprofit, and private sectors. Eligible applicants listed include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other organizations. The FOA also highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI); Hispanic-serving Institutions; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs); faith-based or community-based organizations; eligible federal agencies; U.S. territories or possessions; regional organizations; and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), reflecting an intent to attract diverse institutional perspectives and policy settings.

Key administrative details from the source information include an award ceiling of $200,000 and an original closing date listed as September 7, 2020 (with a creation date of January 25, 2017). Overall, the opportunity is designed to fund rigorous, policy-relevant research that clarifies which public policies work, under what conditions, and for whom, while also strengthening the scientific toolkit used to evaluate policy impacts on alcohol-, marijuana-, and other substance-related behaviors and their health and societal consequences.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Public Policy Effects on Alcohol-, Marijuana-, and Other Substance-Related Behaviors and Outcomes (R21)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.273.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-01-25.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-09-07. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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