ACT Rehab: Advancing Clinical and Translational Research Training in Rehabilitation

The Advancing Clinical Translational science for Rehabilitation (ACT4Rehab) research career development program addresses critical gaps in the current NIH portfolio of rehabilitation research. Advancements in the medical management of life-threatening diseases and traumatic injuries are increasing survival and longevity while also increasing the prevalence of chronic illness and physical disabilities. While great rehabilitation research is occurring, rehabilitation translational science is needed to ensure that our health systems and communities deliver the right care to the people who can benefit most from rehabilitation at the right time. ACT4Rehab will create a mentoring network to support a national cohort of rehabilitation clinician scholars capable of becoming independent scientists who lead research programs that restore, increase, and maximize capabilities to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities. ACT4Rehab will conduct widespread outreach to academic and clinical research programs to recruit and select rehabilitation clinician scholars in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and rehabilitation medicine who have an identified scientific domain with high translational potential for clinical implementation. We will train the scholars and their mentors to augment their clinical research expertise with skills in novel intervention research frameworks, study design, and methods; engagement and collaboration practices with shareholders (i.e., the persons for whom the implementation is designed, their families, healthcare providers, health care systems, payors and industry partners); and implementation design and evaluation frameworks, methods, and tools. This training will ensure that ACT4Rehab scholars will be able to advance and accelerate rehabilitation translational science by “designing for implementation” at all stages of intervention development. We will sustain the impact of ACT4Rehab by training mentors and scholars in mentoring best practices to ensure that ACT4Rehab training in clinical research and clinical implementation is available to successive generations of rehabilitation translational scientists. We will further sustain the impact of ACT4Rehab by expanding existing clinical translational science infrastructure to include rehabilitation specific need via establishment of a national ACT4Rehab network with accompanying web-based resources. ACT4Rehab’s impact will be measured by the degree to which we advance and accelerate high quality clinical translational science in rehabilitation to the benefit of society, as measured using the Translational Science Benefit Model. Project Number: 1K12HD121046-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) | Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Skidmore (+1 co-PI) | Institution: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH, PITTSBURGH, PA | Award Amount: $931,479 | Activity Code: K12 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 MSOS-L (82)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/1K12HD12104601