The National Institute on Aging (NIA) Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory (U54AG063546) was established in 2019 to build the nation’s capacity to conduct embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) of non-pharmacological interventions within health care systems to improve the care of people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners.

The IMPACT Collaboratory will fund up to two 12-month awards for up to $150,000 (total direct costs) to support the activities needed to collaboratively plan and develop a feasible, fully specified protocol for a Stage IV effectiveness ePCT in dementia care. Applicants must partner with a nursing home organization and include at least two nursing homes (either within a single organization or across multiple organizations).

This opportunity focuses exclusively on non-pharmacological interventions to improve the management of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in nursing homes, including person-centered approaches and strategies to reduce antipsychotic or similar neuroactive medication use. Proposed projects must emphasize nursing home-level approaches suitable for future pilot or full-scale ePCTs.

This award emphasizes strong partnerships among investigators, nursing home provider partners, and advisory boards of residents, care partners and other caregivers to ensure the interventions are feasible, aligned with real-world workflows, and ready for testing in an ePCT. By the end of the award, awardees are expected to deliver a fully specified, implementation ready trial protocol for either a pilot or full-scale ePCT.

This funding opportunity does not support early-stage intervention development (Stages 0-I) or protocol development for efficacy trials (Stages II-III on the NIH Stage Model).

Read the full RFA here.

For more information, join the informational webinar on May 21st (see details below) and visit our ePCT Planning Grant Program webpage.

Informational Webinar: May 21, 2026, at 3pm ET: Register here
Letter of Intent (Required): Due June 18, 2026, at 6pm ET
Full applications are by invitation only: Due September 10, 2026, at 6pm ET.

Email IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu with questions about this funding opportunity.

Please help to publicize the IMPACT funding and training opportunities and encourage your investigators and colleagues to apply.

The IMPACT Collaboratory is pleased to announce plans to publish a Request for Applications (RFA) for the Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trials (ePCT) Planning Grants Program. The goal of this program is to support investigators, in partnership with nursing home organizations and resident-care partner advisory boards, to co-design fully specified protocols for ePCTs aimed at improving care for people living with dementia. This RFA focuses exclusively on non-pharmacological interventions to improve the management of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in nursing home settings, consistent with Stage IV effectiveness trials conducted under real-world conditions.

Awards will provide up to 12 months of support with a maximum of $150,000 in total direct costs, with facilities and administrative (F&A, indirect) costs provided at the institution’s negotiated rate. The purpose of this award is to support activities required to co-design a feasible protocol for a Stage IV effectiveness ePCT to address BPSD in partnership with a nursing home organization, with participation from at least two nursing home sites (either within a single organization or across multiple organizations). This award emphasizes collaborative partnership, with investigators, nursing home partners, and an advisory board of residents, care partners and other caregivers working together to shape the intervention and its implementation to fit real-world operational contexts, ensuring feasibility and readiness for a future ePCT.

RFA Release Date: May 5, 2026

Informational Webinar: May 21, 2026, at 3pm ET  Register here

Letter of Intent Due: June 18, 2026, at 6pm ET

This RFA will include a partner-matching process, facilitated through the Letter of Intent (LOI), to support:

• Investigators without established nursing home partners
• Nursing home organizations without identified scientific collaborators

Full applications are by invitation only and will be due September 10, 2026, at 6pm ET.

This Notice is provided for planning purposes only and does not constitute a formal solicitation. Details are subject to change upon release of the official RFA. Kindly hold all inquiries until after the RFA is released, when further details and guidance will be provided in the RFA.

Stay tuned for updates regarding the release of this RFA. Visit IMPACTcollaboratory.org to learn more about our Grants and Training Programs.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) Imbedded Pragmatic AD/ADRD Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Real World Data Scholars Program. Recipients were selected from an impressive group of competitive applications.

About the Real World Data Scholars Program

The Real World Data Scholars Program is a 1-year mentored training experience designed to build practical skills and professional networks for early-career investigators, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students interested in using real-world data to improve care of people living with dementia and care partners.

This funding cycle is a collaborative initiative among the National Institute of Aging (NIA) IMPACT Collaboratory, NEXT STEPs Network and the Long-Term Care (LTC) Data Cooperative. Together, these NIA-funded national efforts aim to build capacity for rigorous, data-driven research to improve care for people living in nursing homes and assisted living communities, including people living with Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias.

Each scholar will complete a mentored research project and participate in a broad range of IMPACT Collaboratory activities that support interdisciplinary collaboration, professional growth, and methodological innovation.

Recipients of the 2025 Real World Data Scholar Program Awards are:

Laura Block, PhD, RN, University of Utah
Evaluating Nursing Home EHR Data for Emerging Palliative Care Needs

Taylor Bucy, PhD, MPH, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Validating a Measure of Emergency Department Use Leveraging Long-Term Care EHR Data

Gabrielle Gussin, PhD, MS, University of California Irvine School of Medicine
Impact of Data Source for Benchmarking Antibiotic Usage in U.S. Nursing Homes

Mary Louise Pomeroy, PhD, MPH, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Developing a Measure of Unrepresented Status Among Nursing Home Residents with Dementia

Rachel Prusynski, DPT, PhD, University of Washington
Establishing Data Infrastructure for a Home Health and Hospice Data Cooperative

Minzhi Ye, PhD, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Measuring Sleep Disturbance in Dementia Using EHR Data in Long-Term Care

Yiyang Yuan, PhD, MPH, MS, UMass Chan Medical School
Advancing Malnutrition Measurement Using Linked EHR and MDS Data

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) Imbedded Pragmatic AD/ADRD Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 James L. Rudolph Career Development Award Program. Recipients were selected from an impressive group of competitive applications.

About the James L. Rudolph Career Development Award Program

The James L. Rudolph Career Development Award recognizes promising investigators in honor of Dr. Rudolph’s distinguished career in gerontology, dementia, and palliative care, his enduring commitment to improving care for older adults, and his unwavering dedication to mentoring and inspiring the next generation of clinicians, researchers, and health professionals.

Dr. Rudolph was a leader in advancing models of care that support people living with dementia and their care partners, particularly within health systems. His work helped translate evidence-based dementia care into system-level solutions and reflected a deep commitment to mentoring and developing the next generation of investigators who carry this work forward.

This award prepares emerging investigators to lead embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) that improve care for people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. Through training, mentorship, and collaboration with experts in the field and healthcare systems, the program builds expertise in pragmatic trial methods and equips investigators to address the unique clinical, ethical, and implementation challenges of dementia care while conducting impactful, real-world research.

2025 James L. Rudolph Career Development Award Recipients:

Natalia Festa, MD, MHS, Yale School of Medicine
External Validation of Instruments to Improve Detection of Undiagnosed Dementia

Chan Mi Park, MD, PMH, Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Instute for Aging Research; Harvard Medical School
Developming an AI-based Measure for Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia Using Nursing Home Electronc Health Records

Kendra Plourde, PhD, Yale School of Public Health
Designing Cluster ePCTs in Dementia Care Dyads to Assess Treatment Heterogeneity

Lauren Pollack, MD, MS, University of Washington
Improving Communication for People Living with Dementia During Emergency Response

IMPACT Design and Statistics Core member Keith Goldfeld, DrPH, MS, MPA, continues his four-part blog series exploring Targeted Minimum Loss Estimation (TMLE)—a causal inference approach developed for observational studies that is increasingly relevant for randomized trials as well, including cluster randomized and stepped-wedge designs.

In the latest post, Dr. Goldfeld recaps key ideas from earlier installments, including how TMLE goes beyond simply improving “nuisance” models by making a targeted update so the empirical mean of the estimated efficient influence function is brought back to zero.

He then turns to simulation to examine what the targeting step changes in practice. By comparing two estimators of the average treatment effect (ATE) with TMLE, the post aims to clarify what the targeted step is doing mechanically and how it shapes the final estimate.

Getting to the bottom of TMLE: targeting in action | March 18, 2026

IMPACT Design and Statistics Core member Keith Goldfeld, DrPH, MS, MPA, has created a blog series exploring an analytic method called Targeted Minimum Loss Estimation (TMLE). TMLE is among causal inference approaches—methods first developed for observational data, but increasingly relevant for randomized trials as well. In particular, Dr. Goldfeld is digging into what TMLE can (and can’t) offer for cluster randomized trials, including stepped-wedge designs.

In this series, Dr. Goldfeld explores TMLE’s use in the context of cluster randomized trials generally and stepped-wedge trials more specifically. One of the challenges of this method for regular users is the underlying theory of the method and the math that goes along with it. In this blog series Dr. Goldfeld works through the theory to get a better understanding of it.

Getting to the bottom of TMLE: influence functions and perturbations | Posted on February 5, 2026

Getting to the bottom of TMLE: the (almost) vanishing nuisance interaction | Posted on March 2, 2026

Getting to the bottom of TMLE: forcing the target to behave | Posted on March 9, 2026

Read the ongoing series here.