Congress appropriations package includes $12.5 million in funding for palliative care research

Congress passed a fiscal year 2024 appropriations package that will provide $12.5 million in funding for the National Institute of Aging (NIA) to implement a trans-institute, multi-disease strategy to focus, expand, and intensify national research programs in palliative care across the lifespan.

The National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care along with our members and partners have worked for several years to initiate a strategic approach for research which will now become the new trans-institute consortium for palliative care research across the lifespan and will support coordinated research and the scientific workforce. Thank you to our volunteers and members who have advocated for expanded research for serious illness care and to our bipartisan congressional champions for their support and commitment.

Below is the full Senate Report 118-84 language:

“Palliative Care Research. — Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness and is focused on treating the discomfort, symptoms, and stress of such illness. Palliative care has the potential to improve patient care, patient-clinician communication, and patient- centered outcomes while decreasing unwanted and/or burdensome treatments and enhancing quality of life for people with serious illness, their loved ones, and their care partners. The Committee provides $12,500,000 for NIA to implement a trans- Institute, multi-disease strategy to focus, expand, and intensify national research programs in palliative care. NIH is directed to establish a comprehensive multi-Institute and multi-Center initiative aimed at a wide variety of palliative care research, training, dissemination, and implementation of projects to intensify the strategic coordination of palliative care research efforts. Funding is provided to establish an extramural-based palliative care research consortium with no less than three sites to provide technical assistance, pilot and exploratory grant funding, research dissemination, data repositories, data analytics, and career development support for interdisciplinary palliative care. NIH shall prioritize grantees with recognized expertise and leadership in palliative care. The Committee encourages NIH to fund several multi-years, early-career development grants modeled after NIA’s GEMSSTAR program. Appropriations provided in fiscal year 2024 for training are expected to cover 2 years of funding for career development awards. The Committee requests a briefing within 120 days of enactment on how this strategy will be established and implemented, including timelines on when funding opportunities will be issued and when funding will be awarded.”