Fig. 1

Flow diagram of identification, screening, and inclusion of project profiles for analysis. Between September 19 and October 05, 2016, we exported data from all R01 Grants and Equivalent project profiles listed in the NIH RePORTER Database reviewed by the DIRH study section. We removed duplicate project profiles with the same grant identification number. Two analysts independently screened project profiles and excluded profiles that did not have primary outcomes related to implementation. We defined implementation as the use of strategies to adopt and integrate evidence into practice within specific settings [15]. We only included projects with an implementation focus for further data abstraction and excluded those that had primary outcomes focused on dissemination. We defined dissemination as the targeted distribution of evidence to a specific public health or clinical practice audience (e.g., the comparative the effectiveness of two modes of delivering information to target audiences) [1]. Of the 277 active or completed R01 projects reviewed by the DIRH study section listed on the NIH RePORTER website, 84 were eligible for screening. These projects had start dates ranging from September 1, 2004, to August 25, 2016. Of the 84 projects, 76 (90.5%) had primary implementation outcomes and 8 (9.5%) had only dissemination outcomes. Analysts abstracted descriptive data from the 76 included project profiles, and inter-rater reliability was 82%. We then completed PubMed searches using the investigators’ names to identify articles related to the funded project. We identified 47 relevant articles and abstracted data from these on whether sustainability was addressed, planned for, and/or measured. Two people abstracted data independently, and kappa was calculated [15, 16]