Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET): Learning Health Care Research to Improve Mental Health Services and Outcomes (P01 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA MH 25 200

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 25 200

The Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET): Learning Health Care Research to Improve Mental Health Services and Outcomes (P01 Clinical Trial Optional) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity (RFA MH 25 200; CFDA 93.242) that supports large, coordinated Program Project (P01) applications. The central aim is to build and sustain “scientific hubs” that connect multiple real-world early psychosis clinics and use learning health care methods to improve the quality, effectiveness, and outcomes of evidence-based services. In practical terms, the program is designed to help early psychosis systems learn from their own routine clinical data, identify what works best for whom and under what conditions, and then feed those findings back into care quickly so services can improve continuously across the network.

This NOFO focuses on clinics delivering Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC), which is the evidence-based, team-based model widely used for early psychosis treatment. The population of interest is people in the early stages of psychotic illness, defined here as the time from onset of an affective or non-affective psychotic disorder through up to five years after a person’s first episode of psychosis. That definition matters because it sets the clinical window the network is meant to serve and study, and it aligns with the period when early intervention is often most impactful for long-term recovery, functioning, and engagement in treatment.

A defining feature of EPINET under this announcement is standardization and interoperability across sites. Each funded scientific hub is expected to link multiple early psychosis service programs using three shared building blocks. First, sites will align on the EPINET Core Assessment Battery (CAB), a common set of measures intended to capture early psychosis clinical features, the CSC services delivered, and patient outcomes. Second, hubs will use informatics tools that enable collection of de-identified, person-level data across participating programs, allowing clinics to contribute data while protecting privacy. Third, hubs will apply a unified approach to analyzing pooled data so that results are comparable and combinable across sites, supporting network-wide learning rather than isolated, single-clinic findings. A major emphasis is rapid dissemination, meaning that promising insights, quality improvements, and emerging best practices should move quickly across the EPINET network instead of remaining stuck in traditional slow research cycles.

Mechanistically, this is a discretionary grant using the P01 Program Project structure, which typically supports a coordinated set of research projects organized around a central theme, often with shared cores and infrastructure. The “Clinical Trial Optional” designation indicates that the proposed work may include clinical trials, but a trial is not required; applicants can propose other types of learning health care research approaches, including pragmatic studies, implementation evaluations, quality improvement research, and analyses of routinely collected clinical data, as long as the work fits the goals of improving mental health services and outcomes in CSC settings.

Eligibility is broad and includes many domestic organization types that could plausibly serve as a hub or key partner, such as state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized governments; nonprofit organizations with and without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The NOFO also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant categories that NIH wants to encourage, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions, as well as eligible federal agencies. At the same time, the opportunity clearly excludes foreign organizations: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible either.

Key administrative details included in the source information are the original application due date of 2025-02-03 and an award ceiling listed at $1,000,000. The announcement is categorized under the health funding activity area, and it was created on 2024-09-23. Overall, the opportunity is best understood as NIH’s effort to scale a coordinated, data-driven learning system for early psychosis care, where multiple CSC programs can contribute standardized information, learn from pooled evidence, and translate findings into faster improvements in treatment delivery and patient outcomes across the EPINET network.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET): Learning Health Care Research to Improve Mental Health Services and Outcomes (P01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-09-23.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-02-03. (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 $1,000,000.00 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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