Funding Opportunity Number: PAR-25-241
Deadlines: February 16, 2025, March 16, 2025
Purpose
The purpose of this PAR is to support policy research projects that examine new or adapted policies pertaining to tobacco, alcohol, and/or cannabis in the U.S., with a particular focus on how the policy or policies influence tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use or secondhand exposure among populations experiencing disparities. Funded projects will involve authentic engagement with one or more community organizations with the aim of promoting equity in cancer prevention by addressing tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use and exposure. The long-term goal is to support tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis policy research studies that will improve health equity and promote cancer prevention.
Research Objectives
Broadly, this NOFO is intended to encourage research projects that focus on populations experiencing disparities in tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use or secondhand exposure by examining new or adapted policies pertaining to tobacco, alcohol, and/or cannabis in the U.S. The results of funded projects will advance equitable tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis policies.
Specific research topics that fall within the scope of this PAR would include, but would not be limited to, changes in tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use or secondhand exposure among populations that experience disparities associated with the following types of policies:
- Comprehensive smokefree environment policies, including smoke and vapor from cannabis products (e.g., smokefree school campus policies that extend to nicotine and cannabis vaping products);
- Policies that reduce the appeal of tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis products through advertising or marketing restrictions, package design requirements, and flavor bans;
- Policies that reduce the demand for products with pricing interventions (e.g., minimum unit pricing; taxation);
- Policies related to the sale of tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis (e.g., legalization/authorization, age restrictions, retailer licensing and density, days and hours of legal sale);
- Policies related to the treatment coverage for tobacco use, alcohol use disorder, or cannabis use disorder (e.g., Federal, state, local, and institutional policies influencing access to, affordability, and use of treatment services);
- Overarching policy environment (e.g., studies that examine the dynamic interplay of different types of policies on tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use or secondhand exposure; how policies may work synergistically to reduce use or secondhand exposure).
All projects must include:
- A focus on one or more populations experiencing disparities in tobacco, alcohol, and/or cannabis use or secondhand exposure.
- A focus on at least one policy pertaining to tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis.
- Individual- or population-level measurement of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use or secondhand exposure with and without a policy (either before and after, or in the absence and presence of, a policy); pre-post and comparative study designs are acceptable.
- Of note:
- Projects are required to measure use of or secondhand exposure to all three substances, irrespective of the target substance of the policy.
- Investigators should propose specific outcome measures (e.g., current use, flavored tobacco product use, frequency of binge drinking) as they are relevant to and appropriate for evaluating the policy and the research question.
- Longitudinal data on a cohort of individuals is not required; repeated cross-sectional surveys or other study designs may be proposed if data are available or collected with and without a policy.
- Applicants may also consider including health outcomes.
- Of note:
- Collaboration and partnership with a community organization.
- Of note:
- Projects must demonstrate a meaningful partnership with a relevant community organization, from conception to dissemination, to foster the development of feasible, acceptable, and scalable policy approaches.
- Projects must provide details on the nature and extent of the partnership. It is expected that the partner community organization will have a substantial role in the implementation of the proposed study.
- Interested applicants can learn more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health’s “National Networks Driving Action”, which are consortia that provide leadership on and promote evidence-based approaches for preventing commercial tobacco use and cancer to increase equitable delivery of tobacco prevention and cancer-related strategies and related interventions. (https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/php/tobacco-control-programs/coop-agreement.html.
- Interested applicants can learn more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health’s National and State Tobacco Control Program, which provides funding and technical support to state and territorial health departments (https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/php/tobacco-control-programs/index.html.
- Interested applicants can learn more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control’s National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, which supports programs to design and implement impactful, strategic, evidence-based, and sustainable plans to prevent and control cancer. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, 7 U.S. Pacific Island jurisdictions and Puerto Rico, and 7 tribes and tribal organizations have produced 65 plans. (https://www.cdc.gov/comprehensive-cancer-control/about/programs.html
- The investigative team and partner community organization are encouraged to build workforce development plans for interested members of the partner organization and assist them with capacity building.
- Of note:
- An overall strategy that builds upon rigorous dissemination and implementation science.
- A dissemination plan appropriate for the research question and the nature of hypothesized results to relevant communities. Applicants are also encouraged to consider how and to whom they will disseminate findings to if findings demonstrate that a policy has harmful consequences for populations experiencing disparities.
Applications may propose various methodologies, including, but not limited to:
- Natural experiments
- Randomized control trials
- Modeling studies
- Observational research, such as ecological and longitudinal study designs
In developing their research questions and study designs, applicants are encouraged to consider the wider context, including other policies that may be potential moderators, the degree of policy enforcement, and the mode of product use (e.g., smoke, vape, ingest). Moreover, applicants are also encouraged to examine the intersectionality of social circumstances and social identities.