Assistance program
Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support
$120.7 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Health Resources and Services Administration, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 93.877
- What it does
- This Program supports activities to: provide information and education on autism and other developmental disabilities (DD) to increase public awareness; promote research into the development and validation of reliable screening tools and interventions for autism and other developmental disabilities and disseminate information; promote early screening of individuals with increased likelihood for autism and other developmental disabilities as early as practicable, given evidence-based screening techniques and interventions; increase the number of professionals who are able to confirm or rule out a diagnosis of autism and other developmental disabilities; and increase the number of professionals able to provide evidence-based interventions for individuals diagnosed with autism or other developmental disabilities. The Autism Research Portfolio includes the Autism Research Network Program (Autism RN) Program, Autism Single Investigator Innovation Program (Autism SIIP), Autism Field-Initiated Innovative Research Studies (Autism FIRST) Program, and the Autism Secondary Data Analysis Research (Autism SDAR) Program. The Autism RNs establish and maintain an interdisciplinary, multicenter research forum for scientific collaboration and infrastructure building. They provide national leadership in research to advance the evidence base on effective interventions for children and adolescents with autism and other developmental disabilities (ASD/DD) across the lifespan. The Research Networks develop guidelines for those interventions and disseminate information related to such research and guidelines as authorized by the Autism CARES Act of 2019 (Autism CARES Act). The Autism SIIP Program supports focused research on priority, emerging, and underdeveloped research areas in autism and other development disabilities (DD), with a special focus on addressing the needs of underserved populations. The Autism FIRST Program supports research studies testing the implementation of new/innovative strategies that address critical issues surrounding the health of children and adolescents with autism. These studies collect primary data to analyze public health trends in their chosen area of focus within the Autism/DD, with awardees typically implementing randomized control trials. The Autism SDAR Program supports secondary data analysis of existing publicly available and accessible national databases and/or administrative records to determine the evidence-based practices for interventions that improve the physical and behavioral health of children and adolescents with autism/DD, with a particular focus on addressing barriers to identification, diagnosis, interventions and services among underserved populations and for whom there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of interventions, and limited access to screening, diagnosis, and treatment for autism/DD.