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NIA Home > Research Information > Extramural Programs > Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology

R21-Exploratory/Development Grants

The Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology Program accepts R21 applications involving research on health and disease in the aged and research on aging during the human lifespan and its relationships to health outcomes, consistent with the program's mission. Specific areas of interest are:

Research on health, disease, and disability in older persons, including:

  • Multifactorial geriatric syndromes (e.g., falls, frailty, and various types of disability)
  • Effects of comorbidity and polypharmacy
  • Effects of age-related changes on clinical or functional disease outcomes or treatment responses
  • Effects of physical activity on disease and disability in older persons
  • Elucidation, diagnosis, and treatment of previously unappreciated pathologic changes in old age (e.g., sarcopenia, vascular stiffening, diastolic dysfunction).


Clinically related research on aging during the lifespan and determinants of age-related progression rate changes that affect disease risk, including: 
 

  • Healthy aging during the lifespan, including exceptional longevity
  • Protective factors against multiple age-related conditions
  • Longitudinal studies of factors affecting aging changes at different points in the lifespan
  • Translational human research to follow-up findings from basic research on aging
  • Long-term effects of current or new interventions that may be administered during a large part of the lifespan
  • Long-term effects of physical activity and nutritional factors throughout the lifespan.
     

Exploratory research on interventions affecting aging changes and/or health of older persons, including: 
 

  • Prevention or treatment of "geriatric syndromes," frailty, disability, and complications of comorbidity or polypharmacy
  • Age- or comorbidity-related differences in responses to interventions
  • Problems associated with menopause, reproductive aging, and other mid- and late-life changes
  • Rates of progression of age-related declines in function in early and midlife
  • Interventions with protective effects against multiple age-related conditions.