PCORI PFA: Addressing Health Outcomes for Individuals With IDD and/or Rare Diseases (Cycle 3 2026)

About this program

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will issue a Funding Announcement on Aug. 4, 2026 to support patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) that improves health outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and/or rare diseases (RD). PCORI is particularly interested in high-impact CER across special emphasis areas—improving access to patient-centered care, care transitions, pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic approaches to physical and mental health, and caregiver well‑being—and welcomes individual or cluster randomized trials or well‑specified observational studies that measure clinically meaningful, patient-centered outcomes. Applicants may request up to $12 million in direct costs for projects up to five years (program total up to $60 million); key deadlines include a Letter of Intent due Sept. 8, 2026 and full application due Jan. 12, 2027. Applicants must demonstrate meaningful patient and stakeholder engagement per PCORI’s Foundational Expectations, propose interventions ready for CER (development-only, strict implementation/dissemination-only, and untested technologies are nonresponsive), and justify outcome selection (including if focusing solely on caregiver outcomes).