Rigorous projects and grants integrating human-centered design and implementation science: 8 tips for success

Researchers and funders increasingly see potential for integrating human-centered design (HCD) and implementation science (IS) approaches to enhance the design and uptake of health interventions and implementation strategies. These approaches offer complementary strengths. HCD prioritizes developing compelling, intuitive, and adoptable innovations grounded in user and contextual needs; IS focuses on ensuring evidence-based practices reach and work for their intended populations. Integrating HCD and IS creates challenges that existing IS proposal writing guidelines do not address. HCD's inherent uncertainty-since final designs are developed through iteration rather than pre-determined-can unsettle researchers and funders accustomed to more defined endpoints. Variation in how HCD is understood adds further difficulty when collaborating across disciplines or communicating with funders. There are currently no published recommendations to help researchers design strong studies integrating HCD and IS and communicate them effectively to funders.

We present tips to support both rigorous study design and effective proposal writing that integrate HCD and IS. This draws from our experiences leading, supporting, and reviewing both funded and unfunded projects. Our considerations are informed primarily by experiences with teams in the United States in the mental health and behavioral health domains; however, we have found our findings also apply to projects globally and in other health sectors. Our intent is that this guide will advance good research that leverages both approaches and is viable for funding. We also hope that the tips will support funders in developing solicitations and evaluating proposals.

There is untapped potential for innovative health research integrating HCD and IS, but realizing it requires both rigorous study design and an ability to attract funding. We offer practice guidance to help researchers and funders develop quality projects and proposals, and we encourage others to build on these recommendations.