Research Priorities

Statement

The O&P Foundation's research priorities focus on orthotics and prosthetics research that serves to improve clinical outcomes, enhance patient experiences, and optimize healthcare costs. We support initiatives addressing key domains in the quality of patient care—safety, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, efficiency, and patient-centeredness—while fostering innovation that delivers measurable improvements in orthotic and prosthetic rehabilitation.

Approach

The O&P Foundation is committed to support clinical researchers through a variety of smaller grants aimed at catalyzing research progress in orthotics and prosthetics rehabilitation patient care.

Requirements

Research should address one or more of the core elements (Triple Aim) of value-based care.

·      Outcomes

·      Experience

·      Cost

AND one or more of the defined AHRQ Quality Domains

·      Effectiveness

·      Efficiency

·      Patient Centeredness

·      Timeliness

·      Equity

·      Safety

The O&P Foundation does not currently fund:

·      Research from non-US based institutions as primary site applicant

·      Research focusing on engineering/device prototyping and/or pre-commercialization testing 

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES

Early Career Research Grant 

• The Early Career Research Grants is intended to help early career investigators initiate lines of research that will be competitive for larger funding opportunities through funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), or the Department of Defense (DOD). 

Applications open Spring 2025

Mentored Pilot Research Grant 

• The Mentored Pilot Research Grant is intended to help trainees (e.g., masters/doctoral students, orthotics and prosthetics residents) or orthotics and prosthetics clinicians to complete a research project with the guidance of an experienced research mentor. Mentored Pilot Grant funds are intended to be used for the conduct of the proposed research project.

Applications open Spring 2025

Microgrants 

• The O&P Foundation's Microgrant Program is designed to spark clinically relevant scholarly work in the field of orthotics and prosthetics (O&P). This program awards one-year grants of $2,000 to support clinically relevant activities and projects. These microgrants aim to empower health professionals, researchers, students, and residents to pursue projects and activities that may contribute to clinical care in O&P, such as investigator-initiated research, career development opportunities, or quality assurance and/or improvement projects. 

Applications open October 7th through November 11th, 2024