Which organizations fund research into urinary incontinence treatment and where are their public grant records?
Executive summary
Federal agencies, professional societies, nonprofit funders and specialty foundations all underwrite research into urinary incontinence (UI) treatment, and most publish award opportunities and grantee records on public grant portals or their own websites; prominent funders include the National Institutes of Health and its institutes (notably NIDDK), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), professional societies such as the American Urological Association and its Urology Care Foundation, and charities like The Urology Foundation, each of which provides publicly discoverable grant notices or award pages [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8].
1. Who the big public funders are — federal research agencies and how they document funding
The NIH and its institutes have long funded clinical and translational work on urologic disorders including urinary incontinence through targeted mechanisms (R21s, RFAs and networks) and publish solicitations and awards on the federal grants portal and program-specific pages such as grants.nih.gov and institute sites like NIDDK’s urology research program, which also point researchers to eRA Commons and grants.gov for applications and to the NIDDK Central Repository for study data and biospecimens [2] [1] [9]. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) specifically funds implementation and dissemination initiatives for nonsurgical UI management in primary care (for example the INTUIT‑PC program) and maintains project descriptions, FOAs and grantee profiles on its website and its EvidenceNOW/initiative pages [3] [10] [11]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also issues grants to tackle UI as a public‑health problem and publicly acknowledges award recipients in press notices and grant announcements — for example a CDC grant awarded to a coalition including the National Association For Continence and Phreesia to address UI awareness and systems change [4].
2. Nongovernmental funders — PCORI, professional foundations and charities
PCORI, created by Congress to underwrite comparative effectiveness and patient‑centered outcomes research, has awarded engagement and research funds specifically for stress urinary incontinence projects and publishes award notices and project descriptions on its site when grants are approved [5]. Professional and specialty funders — notably the American Urological Association (AUA) and its Urology Care Foundation — run research award programs and maintain public pages describing foundation funding streams, grant competitions and program priorities for urologic research including UI [6] [12] [7]. International charities and specialty trusts such as The Urology Foundation also advertise research grant programs, amounts and application guidance on their websites and list funded projects and timelines for transparency [8].
3. Where to look for public grant records and award details
Primary public sources for solicitations and records are the federal portals and agency pages: grants.nih.gov and institute-specific FOA pages for NIH funding opportunities and notices (R21, RFA examples appear in NIH FOAs) and grants.gov for published federal RFAs and application tracking [2] [13] [3] [1]. AHRQ publishes FOAs, funded‑project descriptions and grantee profiles on its site and initiative pages [10] [11]. The CDC posts grant awards and project partners in press releases and agency announcements [4]. Nonfederal funders maintain searchable award or news pages — PCORI posts engagement award recipients and project summaries (as in the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health award), and the AUA, Urology Care Foundation and The Urology Foundation publish grant programs and eligibility, and often list funded projects or award winners on their respective websites [5] [6] [7] [8].
4. What the public records show about emphasis and gaps
Public FOAs and award notices indicate federal emphasis on implementation science and nonsurgical management in primary care (AHRQ’s INTUIT‑PC and related RFAs) and on pilot/feasibility clinical research through NIH R21-type mechanisms and dedicated treatment network solicitations for continence centers [3] [2] [9], while PCORI and foundation awards frequently prioritize patient‑centered outcomes and engagement [5] [12]. Available reporting in these public records documents investments in non‑surgical treatments, comparative effectiveness and implementation; however, the provided sources do not supply a consolidated, single dataset enumerating total dollars specifically labelled “urinary incontinence” across all funders, so aggregation would require cross‑querying the agency and foundation award databases cited above [2] [10] [5] [6].
Conclusion: how to follow the money
To track specific grants for urinary incontinence treatment research, consult NIH/agency FOAs on grants.nih.gov and institute pages (NIDDK), search federal listings on grants.gov and agency sites for AHRQ and CDC project pages, review PCORI’s award announcements, and check the AUA/Urology Care Foundation and The Urology Foundation grant and news pages for foundation awards — these are the primary public records where solicitations, awards and project descriptions are published [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [8] [7]. Where the supplied reporting is silent, no claim is made about unlisted funders or undisclosed awards.