The Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program builds research capacities in states that historically have had low levels of NIH funding by supporting basic, clinical, and translational research; faculty development; and infrastructure improvements. The program also enhances the ability of investigators to compete successfully for additional research funding and serves the research needs of medically underserved communities.

ECHO leverages NIH-funded institutions that are part of the IDeA Program to build an ECHO IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN). The goal of the ECHO ISPCTN is to provide medically underserved and rural populations with access to state-of-the-art clinical trials, apply findings from relevant pediatric cohort studies to children in IDeA state locations, and build pediatric research capacity at a national level. Funding also supports professional development of faculty-level pediatricians and their support teams in the conduct of clinical trials research.