Mobile Health: Technology and Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries (mHealth)

Status: Accepting applications

Announcement(s)

Mobile Health: Technology and Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries (R21/R33 - Clinical Trial Optional)

Deadlines

March 21, 2025
March 20, 2026

Eligibility

Non-domestic applicant organizations are restricted to organizations in LMICs, which are defined by The World Bank as low-, lower-middle-, or upper-middle-income economies.
While it is not required (although encouraged) for applications submitted to this NOFO by LMIC institutions to have US partners, all applications submitted to this NOFO by US institutions are required to involve LMIC researchers as key personnel.
Program Directors/Principal Investigators may be employed in either a U.S. or LMIC institution, but should plan to build capacity in mHealth research in the LMIC institution(s).
See full Eligibility Information for more details.

Program Overview

Mobile Health: Technology and Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries supports exploratory and developmental research to study the development, validation, feasibility, and effectiveness of innovative mobile health (mHealth) interventions or tools specifically suited for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that utilize new or emerging technology, platforms, systems, or analytics. The overall goal of the program is to catalyze innovation through multidisciplinary research that addresses global health problems, develop an evidence base for the use of mHealth technology to improve clinical and public health outcomes, and strengthen mHealth research capacity in LMICs.

In the context of this program, mHealth is defined as the use of mobile and wireless devices (cell phones, tablets, etc.) to improve health outcomes, health care services, and health research. The mHealth technology studied in proposed projects may include external hardware and/or software components for mobile or wireless devices. New or emerging technology, platforms, systems, or analytics should be incorporated. For the purposes of this FOA, research that proposes solely SMS-based text messaging intervention(s) will not be considered responsive.

The current funding opportunity announcement provides support for up to two years (R21 phase) for technology development and feasibility studies, followed by a possible transition to expanded research support (R33 phase) for validation, larger-scale feasibility, and effectiveness studies. Transition to the R33 depends on the completion of applicant-defined milestones, as well as program priorities and the availability of funds. All applicants must address both the R21 and R33 phases.

Of highest interest are innovative, well-designed multidisciplinary projects that aim to generate generalizable knowledge for the field. See the full program announcement for details on the specific research interests of the participating NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices.

Recent Awards

View a list of mHealth grant awards by institution.

Frequently Asked Questions

Review answers to frequently asked questions for the Mobile Health: Technology and Outcomes in LMICs Program.

Inquiries

Programmatic Issues

Brad Newsome, Ph.D.
Program Officer
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Building 31, Room B2C39
31 Center Drive, MSC 2220
Bethesda, MD 20892-2220
Phone: 301-480-8389
Fax: 301-402-0779
Email: brad.newsome@nih.gov

Grants Management

Satabdi Raychowdhury
Grants Management Specialist
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Building 31, Room B2C29
31 Center Drive, MSC 2220
Bethesda, MD 20892-2220
Telephone: 301-496-9750
Fax: 301-594-1211
Email: Satabdi.raychowdhury@nih.gov

Partners

The announcements related to this program are issued by Fogarty in collaboration with the following NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices.