NIH Funding for Using Driving to Detect and Study Dementia

A new grant opportunity offered by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) may be of special interest to psychological scientists who study cognition, clinical science, methodology, or more. Titled “Aging, Driving and Early Detection of Dementia,” it’s a significant NIH research project grant (R01) aimed at supporting scientists in conducting research using automobile technology and automobile data to detect early signs of cognitive impairment in older drivers.

“Applications are invited for research on using automobile technology, coupled with other modes of assessing an individual’s health/functional status, to detect early signs of cognitive impairment,” says NIH in the request for applications.

This opportunity seeks to fund two kinds of research. In NIH’s words, these are:

1. Basic research on identifying unobtrusive technology for monitoring driving performance and integrating it with other data to detect cognitive decline
2. Methodological research on integrating driving-related data (and databases) with data on an individual’s health and functional status to detect cognitive impairment.

Successful applications to this opportunity will build a multidisciplinary, integrative team; NIA specially notes that contributions of psychological scientists are invited in this work.

“Applications must include interdisciplinary research teams (e.g., data scientists, human factors engineers, computer scientists, psychologists, and/or physicians) that focus on data integration, age-related driving performance, and dementia,” reads the announcement.

This new opportunity will offer teams of scientists up to $500,000 in direct costs annually. Those interested in applying should consider submitting an optional letter of intent by September 22, 2019 and submit their application by October 22, 2019.

Click here to read NIA’s new funding opportunity on aging, driving, and early detection of dementia.

Looking for inspiration in developing a grant proposal? Click here to read Minds on the Road, the APS blog focused on the science of driving and behavior.