The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is asking for grant and contract proposals for comparative effectiveness research projects that will be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

Of the $300 million appropriated by ARRA to comparative effectiveness research, $148 million in grants will be provided for evidence generation. This  includes $100 million for the Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness and $48 million for the establishment of national patient registries that can be used for researching longitudinal effects of different interventions and collecting data for under-represented populations.

Another $29.5 million will fund innovative translation and dissemination grants for comparative effectiveness research, and $20 million will be spent to support training and career development.

The AHRQ said $9.5 million will be issued in contracts to establish an infrastructure to identify new or emerging issues for comparative effectiveness review investments and $10 million will be used to establish a citizen’s forum to encourage public involvement in AHRQ’s Effective Health Care program.

In addition, funding will be used to support existing contracts for evidence synthesis ($50 million), evidence generation ($24 million), translation and dissemination ($5 million) and salary and benefits for ARRA-related full-time positions ($3 million).