PCORI posts research funding opportunities

PCORI has two live funding tracks that help explain where patient-centered health research is heading this fall. On August 4, 2026, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute opened Cycle 3 2026 funding announcements for “Advancing the Science of Engagement in Research” and for “Improving Methods for Conducting Patient-Centered Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research.” Letters of intent for both are due September 9 at 5 p.m. (pcori.org) Eastern, and invited full applications are due January 12, 2027. The two calls sit inside PCORI’s regular research-awards calendar, which the institute says issues comparative clinical effectiveness research and related funding opportunities in set cycles during the year. (pcori.org) FundsforNGOs separately flagged both opportunities this week, including the methods call’s award ceiling of up to $750,000 in direct costs. (pcori.org) ### So what exactly did PCORI open this week? PCORI said on August 4 that it opened several new Research and Implementation funding announcements under Cycle 3 2026, including the engagement-science call and the methods call. The agency’s notice said the opportunities are for high-quality patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research and related projects. The standard-due-dates page shows both “Advancing the Science of Engagement in Research” and “Improving Methods for Conducting Patient-Centered CER” listed in Cycle 3 2026, with the same September 9 letter-of-intent deadline and January 12, 2027 application deadline. (pcori.org) ### What is the engagement-science call actually funding? The engagement announcement says PCORI wants studies that “build an evidence base on engagement in research,” including measures of engagement, techniques that lead to effective engagement, and ways those techniques should be modified and resourced for different contexts, settings and communities. (pcori.org) PCORI says the focus is on engagement of partners in research across the life cycle of planning, conducting and disseminating studies. (pcori.org) PCORI also draws a line around what does not qualify. The announcement says projects focused on patient engagement in clinical care or self-care are not responsive, including shared decision-making interventions or efforts to improve treatment adherence. (pcori.org) A separate PCORI background page says the institute launched its science-of-engagement initiative in July 2022 and has argued that the field still lacks shared measurement tools, common language and systematic evidence on which engagement techniques work best. ### What is in the methods call with the $750,000 figure? The Cycle 3 2026 methods announcement says PCORI will accept applications with direct costs of up to $750,000 and project durations of up to three years. (pcori.org) The call targets methodological gaps in patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research, or CER. PCORI lists four priority areas for this cycle: patient-centered measurement, use of real-world data in multi-site patient-centered CER, use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in patient-centered CER, and study design. (pcori.org) The agency also says some topics were newly added this cycle, including synthetic data based on real-world data and AI or ML approaches that enhance health communication. (pcori.org) FundsforNGOs said the methods program carries about $12 million in total available funding and is open to research institutions, universities, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, and other eligible research entities. (pcori.org) ### Why do these two opportunities belong in the same conversation? PCORI’s own funding pages place both calls inside the same Cycle 3 2026 research-awards round, with matching opening dates and deadlines. One is about how to study and measure engagement in research; the other is about how to improve the methods used in patient-centered comparative effectiveness studies. PCORI says engagement in research means the “meaningful involvement and partnership of stakeholders throughout the research process,” while the methods announcement focuses on the tools used to generate stronger evidence. (pcori.org) Read together, the calls show that the institute is funding both the process of involving patients and stakeholders and the technical design of the research itself. That framing is an inference from the two PCORI announcements being issued together in the same cycle. (www2.fundsforngos.org) ### What should applicants watch next? PCORI has scheduled an applicant town hall for the engagement-science call on August 11, 2026 at noon Eastern and for the methods call on August 19, 2026 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The institute also said applicants must use its new PCORI Connect portal for submissions. (pcori.org) September 9, 2026 is the next hard deadline for both opportunities, according to PCORI’s funding pages, and January 12, 2027 is the due date for invited full applications. (pcori.org 1) (pcori.org 2)