Up to $100 million is on offer for grants focused on comparative effectiveness research (CER) to study what medical interventions work best and for whom and under what circumstances. On November 16, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, located in Rockville, Maryland, will begin accepting proposals to support large projects in the Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness. The grants are funded by appropriations from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which contains $1.1 billion in federal funding for CER over the next two years (Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 211–212, 2009). Ten awards will be funded in FY2010, which may be up to three years with a grant not exceeding $10 million and no more than $4 million in any one year. CER is what Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) uses to advise the National Health Service on the cost effectiveness of new treatments. “Without such information, policy and policy decisions tend to be ad hoc, based on individual expert perceptions and may be influenced by interests of individuals or groups,” says Kalipso Chalkidou, director of NICE's International Programme. As the US contemplates healthcare reform, US policymakers should consider [establishing] CER systems, says Chalkidou. NICE has recently launched a nonprofit fee-for-service, in which client countries or donors pay for advice.