Areas of Interest

Alkermes is currently accepting proposals that address the topic areas listed below for Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Narcolepsy, and Idiopathic Hypersomnia. Between June 27th and July 25th, 2025, Alkermes will accept proposals for an RFP for continuing medical education programs specific to Bipolar Disorder.

Schizophrenia

• Understanding patient-centered approaches to address one or more of the following challenges in the care of patients with schizophrenia:
  • Practical training in long-acting injectable (LAI) administration 
  • Optimizing patient treatment across stages of illness, including side effects and polypharmacy considerations
  • Long term medication adherence strategies for long acting injectables
  • Consideration of co-occurring disorders in treatment planning

Bipolar Disorder

• Understanding patient-centered approaches to address one or more of the following challenges in the care of patients with bipolar disorder:
  • Optimizing patient treatment across stages of illness, including side effects and polypharmacy considerations
  • Treatment of mixed states 
  • Long term medication adherence strategies for oral medications
  • Consideration of co-occurring disorders in treatment planning 

Narcolepsy and Idiopathic Hypersomnia

• Understanding the pathophysiology of, and the role of orexin neuropeptides in, Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS), Narcolepsy and/or Idiopathic Hypersomnia
• Clinical Strategies to improve earlier screening and diagnosis of patients with Narcolepsy and/or Idiopathic Hypersomnia
• Elucidate the complexity of narcolepsy and/or Idiopathic Hypersomnia patients and their predisposed neurological, psychiatric, metabolic, endocrine, hepatic and GI co-morbidities

Request for Proposal Details – Bipolar Disorder (RFP# 2025-RFP-BD-01)        

Statement of Need

Bipolar I disorder is a chronic, serious mental illness marked by alternating episodes of mania and depression, often leading to significant functional impairment. Although multiple pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic options exist, treatment outcomes remain suboptimal due to limited therapeutic response, poor medication adherence, and a lack of shared decision-making (SDM) in clinical practice.¹ 

The current standard of care often involves combination therapy—such as mood stabilizers with atypical antipsychotics—but treatment complexity has increased with the rise of complex polypharmacy (CP), defined as the use of three or more psychotropic medications.² When evaluating a CP approach to treating bipolar I disorder, clinicians should consider the side effect profile of each medication, the possibility for drug interactions, and the potential impact on patient adherence and outcomes. 

Given the high burden of disease and frequent treatment challenges, there is a critical need to educate clinicians on optimizing care across all stages of bipolar I disorder. Priorities include side effect management, polypharmacy considerations, and incorporation of SDM to deliver personalized, patient-centered care.

RFP Details

• RFP Areas of Interest for Bipolar Disorder (BD): Education around the importance to effectively: 
  • Optimize patient treatment across stages of illness, including side effects and polypharmacy considerations
    • Challenge of mixed states and getting to maintenance
    • Patient-specific factors, and patients’ goals and preferences into treatment considerations for BD
• The target audiences for learners are psychiatric advanced practice nurse practitioners (APRNs), psychiatrists, psychiatric pharmacists, physician assistants, and primary care clinicians treating patients with bipolar disorder.
• Proposals must be submitted to the Alkermes Grant Management System between June 27 and July 25, 2025. Any proposal submitted outside of this period will not be eligible for RFP consideration.
• Proposals must reference RFP#: 2025-RFP-BD-01 in the program title.
• Recipients will be selected by the Alkermes Grants Review Committee and notified in August 2025.
• The maximum amount of funding available for this RFP is $200,000. Multiple individual grants of varying budget will be considered and evaluated and may be distributed among more than one provider.
• Programs must be able to launch within 90 days of award date.

The following additional guidelines apply:

• Innovative digital programs with patient-centric content, interactive elements, a focus on practical learning and clinical case-based studies will be prioritized. 
• Programs that provide robust medical education outcomes plans will be prioritized. Ideal proposals will have specific plans for measuring program impact, including an assessment of the educational gains made and identification of any persistent educational gaps, with sub-analyses by learner type. Moore’s Level 5 outcomes measurement strongly preferred.
• Priority will be given to programs that develop enduring materials and that identify best practices based on the consensus view of experts in the fields of bipolar disorder research and clinical practice.
• Educational activities must be accredited (CME/CE), and collaborations between medical education companies, medical societies and academic institutions are strongly encouraged.

Please note: Consideration will not be given to conferences, regional activities, or programs that do not include an enduring educational component.

Who may apply:

• Only organizations based in the U.S. may apply. 

How to apply:

• Requests must be submitted online by the accredited provider. 

Click here to apply

References

1. Chow RTS, Whiting D, Favril L, et al. An umbrella review of adverse effects associated with antipsychotic medications: the need for complementary study designs. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2023;155:105454. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105454 

2. Greil, W., Häberle, A., Haueis, P., Grohmann, R., and Russmann, S. (2012). Pharmacotherapeutic trends in 2231 psychiatric inpatients with bipolar depression from the International AMSP Project between 1994 and 2009. Journal of Affective Disorders, 136(3), 534–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.10.045