N3C PHASTR- Call for Proposals
Subcontract Proposals Open
Proposals are now being accepted for the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) PHASTR - N3C Public Health Answers to Speed Tractable Results. See the N3C website for submission details and timelines N3C PHASTR | N3C (cd2h.org).
The N3C PHASTR initiative is a new opportunity to use N3C data to provide fast actionable analyses on high-impact COVID-19 public health questions. It’s also an opportunity to increase community engagement on using big data for research and machine learning best practices.
Individuals or teams can apply for N3C PHASTR subcontracts to address specific public health questions. There will be multiple public health questions subcontractor opportunities throughout the rest of the year. The initial N3C PHASTR questions currently open for proposals are:
- Neurologic sequelae covid
- What is the spectrum of neurologic sequelae at 12 months following infection in survivors of acute COVID, compared to individuals who have not had COVID?
- SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection Severity
- Does reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 compared to first infection produce clinical illness that is more severe, the same as, or less severe compared to initial SARS-CoV-2 infection?
Submission Process:
Offerors applying for a subcontract as part of the N3C PHASTR will submit a proposal
using the N3C Data Enclave by following the instructions listed on the N3C PHASTR webpage. All work will be performed utilizing the N3C enclave.
Offerors – those wishing to submit a proposal in response to a N3C PHASTR public health-related research question - will access the proposal Submission process from the N3C home page where they find a new button labeled "Public Health Proposal".
The N3C PHASTR submission package consists of the following components that offerors must include in their proposals: Project Summary, Strategy for Cohort Identification, Analytics Approach, and Justification.
Who Can and Cannot apply:
Any individual or team with appropriate expertise, experience, and resources can submit
a proposal, provided there is no real or apparent conflict of interest.
All offerors must follow all registration and data access processes associated with the environment, including meeting the access requirements for level 3 data as described here.
Application Review Process:
Proposal Evaluation: The N3C PHASTR proposals will be evaluated by the NCATS contractor’s
scientific staff using the information provided in the Proposal Preparation Instructors.
All offerors will be sent an email to convey the results of the evaluation. Successful
offerors will be offered a subcontract by the NCATS contractor to complete the work.
For more information, visit the N3C PHASTR FAQs.
Training materials, office hours, and other support are available at https://covid.cd2h.org/training.
For all inquiries, please contact PublicHealth@nih.gov.
N3C PHASTR is funded in part by the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
CMS Data in N3C & Upcoming Training Dates
The CMS data will be available in the N3C Enclave on November 1, 2022.
Through a generous grant from Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) OS-Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (OS-PCORTF), National COVID Cohort Collaborative, N3C is pleased to announce the inclusion of de-identified linked CMS Medicare data to the existing 19 billion rows of mortality, viral variant, and clinical data in the Enclave. The addition of CMS Medicare is an exponential leap in the scientific potential of N3C. The collaboration not only strengthens the overall capacity of the Enclave, but also resolves the issue of missing visits for patients that get their care from multiple providers.
The initial CMS data contains over 240K COVID-19 patients and will be updated on a monthly basis. The amount of CMS patients available in the Enclave is dependent on sites participating in the NCATS PPRL linkage initiative as additional sites implement the tokenization process the number of patients will increase.
CTSA/CTR investigators registered with N3C and whose institutions have signed the NCATS Data Use Agreement will be eligible to submit Data Use Request project proposals in the Enclave to access the CMS data.
CMS Training!
There will be multiple training opportunities on how to use the CMS data within the N3C Enclave.
N3C Community Forum - CMS Orientation - Monday, October 31st
N3C will hold a brief orientation training on the CMS data during the N3C Community Forum on Monday, October 31st at 2pm PT / 5pm ET – register here. A recording will be available to the N3C community on the CD2H YouTube channel. Analytic strategies for actually using the data are evolving.
N3C In Depth CMS Training - Friday, November 18
Take a deeper dive into the CMS data during a live N3C CMS Webinar training that will be held on Friday, November 18 at 10am PT / 1pm ET - register
here.
N3C Office Hours - Thursdays
Investigators can also attend office hours with a CMS data subject matter expert on Thursdays at 10am PT/ 1pm ET, registration information can be found at https://covid.cd2h.org/support. Information on accessing these and other PPRL datasets can be found in the N3C PPRL training module (enclave access required).