While all proposals related to the overarching focus on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in California will be considered, CPR³ will prioritize applications that:

1. Focus on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of populations within California that have been disproportionately or differentially impacted, such as children and adolescents, caregivers, minority (e.g., racial, gender, sexual) communities, rural communities, or other marginalized, underserved, or vulnerable populations
2. Expand the evidence base for the effectiveness of implemented interventions, social programs, and economic support policies on improving mental health outcomes, including how social and/or structural determinants affect these interventions, program, and policies
3. Have the potential to inform or align with efforts of state mental health initiatives (e.g., California Reducing Disparities Project, Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialists Program, the CARE Act)
4. Have direct applicability to inform future interventions, programs, and policies, with an emphasis on strengths, resiliency and best practices

CPR³ will not consider applications related to the following:

• Basic science related to SARS-CoV-2
• Clinical research solely related to COVID-19 symptoms, such as the direct effects of COVID-19 infection on the brain (e.g., stroke, neuroinflammation, cognitive impairment, loss of taste and smell)
• Learning and cognitive impairments (e.g., Alzheimer’s and other dementias or autism spectrum disorder) will not be considered a mental health outcome. However, people with these impairments would be considered as part of an at-risk population
• Vaccine or diagnostic development
• New randomized controlled trials or longitudinal cohorts*
• Studies that exclude Californian geographies

*Nested studies that leverage existing or ongoing randomized controlled trials or longitudinal cohort studies will be considered if they are responsive to the RFP topic area and are feasible to execute within the award period.