national children’s study

NIH Launches ECHO Program

On September 21, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the launch of the seven-year Environmental Influences on Children Health Outcomes (ECHO) program designed to “investigate how exposure to a range of environmental factors in early development–from conception through early childhood–influences the health of children and adolescents.” The agency planned to allocate $157 million in funding in fiscal year (FY) 2016 for ECHO. Presenting at the September 21 National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council, ECHO Director Matthew Gillman outlined the goals of the study. Gillman noted that the aims for ECHO are consistent with the agency’s goals for the…

NIH Launches Next Phase of ECHO/Children’s Study Follow-On

On December 7, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins announced the next funding phase of the agency’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, which includes seven new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). ECHO is designed to comport with the goals of the National Children’s Study (NCS) (see Update, November 3, 2015) and is being implemented via a series of funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). It is expected that the ECHO program will be supported by and build on recent awards NIH made in September (see Update, September 4, 2015). A nationwide search is underway for an ECHO program manager. In the…

NIH Announces Plans for ECHO Program

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently issued a notice, Announcement of NIH Plans for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program (NOT-OD-16-015), detailing the agency’s plans for program, also known as the National Children’s Study (NCS) alternative (see Update, July 17, 2015). The agency reports that it intends to “support multiple synergistic, longitudinal studies using extant maternal/pediatric cohorts that represent a broad range of environmental exposures,” including behavioral and social exposures. According to the notice, “all longitudinal studies will collect a standardized, targeted set of data (Core Elements), such as demographics, normative development, patient/person reported outcomes (PRO),…

NIH Plans for Redirection of National Children’s Study Funds

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak provided an update on the “redirection” of National Children’s Study (NCS) appropriated funding at the September 1 meeting of the NIH Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) Council of Councils. Despite the NIH’s discontinuation of the NCS, in FY 2015, Congress provided $165 million for the study with direction to the agency to continue to support the mission and goals of the study, along with flexibility on how to carry this task out. Tabak announced that the awards associated with this funding will be made in September. As…

NIH Seeks Comments on Proposed Alternative to National Children’s Study

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is inviting comments on its proposed plan for the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program and has issued a time-sensitive Request for Information (RFI). Background The ECHO program responds to the NIH’s decision to discontinue the National Children’s Study (NCS) in December 2014, per the recommendations of a working group of the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) of NIH (See Update, December 19, 2014). NIH emphasizes that in keeping with the spirit of the NCS, ECHO aims to address the critical goal of understanding the impact of environmental influences on children’s…

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