Using Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions to Optimize Established Adolescent Mental Health Treatments (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Required) | RFA MH 23 170

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 23 170

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity announcement (FOA) titled "Using Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions to Optimize Established Adolescent Mental Health Treatments (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Required)" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-MH-23-170; CFDA 93.242) invites research applications that strengthen existing, evidence-based adolescent mental health treatments by layering in Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs). The central idea is not to replace proven therapies, but to make them more potent and more usable in real life by adding developmentally informed, theoretically grounded, technology-delivered supports that can adapt to a teenagers changing needs and contexts as they go about daily life.

This FOA focuses specifically on adolescence because it is a high-impact developmental window: many mental disorders first emerge or intensify during these years, engagement and retention in traditional face-to-face services can be challenging, and technology use is exceptionally high. The opportunity is built around the premise that JITAIs can meet adolescents where they are, using phones and other digital tools to deliver the right type of support at the right moment. In practical terms, the FOA emphasizes leveraging technology to encourage symptom reduction and behavior change by delivering intervention content through platforms that adolescents are more likely to find engaging, prompting and supporting skills practice in natural environments (not only in the clinic), and tailoring intervention elements to the individuals preferences, symptoms, and real-time circumstances.

A key feature of JITAIs highlighted in the FOA is responsiveness: these interventions can provide in-the-moment feedback, reinforcement, and step-by-step scaffolding when difficulties arise, rather than waiting for the next scheduled therapy session. For example, a JITAI could detect risk-relevant patterns (through brief self-reports, passive sensors, or usage patterns, depending on the design) and then deliver a timely prompt to practice a coping skill, offer a short coaching module, encourage reaching out to supports, or adjust the intensity and type of help based on how the adolescent is doing. The FOA notes that technological advances now make this type of delivery more feasible than in the past, and points out that while JITAIs have shown promise in other areas like health behavior and addiction, there is a striking gap in published studies applying JITAIs to adolescent mental disorders. This funding opportunity is meant to accelerate rigorous work in that gap.

The mechanism is an R61/R33 phased award and a clinical trial is required. In general, an R61/R33 structure supports a staged approach in which early-phase work (often development, refinement, feasibility, and preparation milestones) is linked to a later phase that typically involves a more definitive test, contingent on meeting pre-specified milestones. The clinical trial requirement signals that applicants are expected to empirically test the intervention in a trial framework, not solely build technology or conduct observational or non-interventional studies. The overall emphasis is on intervention science that uses JITAI methods to measurably improve the outcomes, engagement, or real-world impact of established adolescent mental health treatments.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic applicants such as state, county, and city governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations other than federally recognized governments; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in those categories as specified); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. The FOA also explicitly notes additional eligible applicant categories, 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, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations) and regional organizations. In short, NIH is signaling interest in a wide range of institutions that can conduct rigorous, clinically grounded, and technologically capable adolescent mental health research, including organizations well positioned to reach underserved communities.

Administrative details included in the source information indicate the opportunity is a discretionary NIH grant in the health activity category, created on January 12, 2023, with an original closing date of February 22, 2023. While the notice you provided does not list an award ceiling or expected number of awards, the core message is clear: NIH is prioritizing research that integrates adaptive, momentary, technology-based intervention components with established adolescent mental health treatments, and it wants these approaches tested in clinical trials to build an evidence base in an area that is promising but still largely uncharted for adolescent mental disorders.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Using Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions to Optimize Established Adolescent Mental Health Treatments (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Required)" 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 2023-01-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-02-22. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• 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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