Ford Foundation Research on Sexuality and Youth

The Ford Foundation has announced a new Request for Proposals entitled "Sexuality, Health, and Rights Among Youth in the United States: Transforming Public Policy and Public Understanding Through Social Research" designed to support and prepare researchers to take on the challenges of social science sexuality research in the 21st century. The overall goal of the program is to strengthen the capacity of social science researchers to inform public policy and public understanding of sexuality-related issues from a human rights perspective.

Amount: $500,000 (across 2 - 3 years)

Date due: February 1, 2010

Through this RFP the foundation will support research projects that combine three areas of activity: social science research; training of graduate students; and strategic communications to inform public policy or public conversations. Each project must include plans for all three areas of activity. Proposals that explore the role of structural inequalities, stigma and discrimination, and mechanisms of social exclusion related to gender, sexual orientation, class, race and ethnicity, and their intersections are of particular interest, as are proposals exploring how youth and adults in local communities seek to understand and address sexuality, health, and human rights through a range of individual and collective actions. All proposals must demonstrate how they would inform public policy or public dialogue on targeted sexuality or reproductive health and rights issues.

For more information, click here.

Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)

The purpose of the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program is to stimulate research in educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation's research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. These AREA grants create opportunities for scientists and institutions otherwise unlikely to participate extensively in NIH programs, to contribute to the Nation's biomedical and behavioral research effort. AREA grants are intended to support small-scale health-related research projects proposed by faculty members of eligible, domestic institutions (such as WOU).

Amount: $300,000 (for up to 3 years)

Date due: February 25, 2010

For more information, click here.

Healthcare Research & Quality Grants

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) supports Small Research Grant (R03) applications. The R03 grant mechanism supports different types of health services research projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and, development of new research technology. The mission of AHRQ is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. AHRQ strives to achieve its mission by supporting research which directly relates to accomplishing one of the following broad-based goals:

• Enhancing quality and safety by reducing the risk of harm from health care services through promoting the delivery of appropriate care that achieves the best quality outcomes
• Achieving efficiency through wider access to effective health care services and reductions in health care costs
• Assuring effectiveness through the beneficial and timely use of health care information by providers and consumers/patients, which allows them opportunities to make informed decisions and choices.
• Applicants to AHRQ must address at least one of the three broad-based goals of AHRQ in their proposed research. Further, applicants must:
• Demonstrate how expected results can be used or made available for use to enhance improvements in health care. Results should be directly relevant to customers, such as: providers and practitioners, administrators, payers, consumers, policymakers, and insurers.
• Focus on research topics which are unique to AHRQ and address one of the current priority areas of AHRQ.

Amount: $100,000 (2 years)

Date due: February 16, 2010 or June 16, 2010

Projects must be self-contained. They may be conceptually linked to future or past projects, but must contain all the elements of a stand-alone effort that can be reviewed and evaluated on its own for both scientific merit and budget.

For more information, click here.

Health Impact Project

A collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust, the Health Impact Project is intended to encourage the use of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to help decision-makers better assess proposed policies, projects, and programs with respect to their impact on health so that they may avoid adverse health consequences and costs and improve health. The program partners have issued a call for proposals to demonstrate the effectiveness of HIAs and promote their incorporation into local, state, tribal, and federal decision-making.

Amount: $25,000 - $150,000

Date due: Open.

Up to fifteen demonstration projects will be awarded in this round of funding. Grants will range from $25,000 to $150,000 and must be completed within twenty-four months.

For more information, click here.

Public Health Conference Support Program

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) proposes a funding opportunity to provide partial support for specific non-Federal conferences in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention, and educational programs.

Amount: $5,000 - $100,000

Date due: December 11, 2009

Measurable outcomes of the program will be in alignment with one (or more) of the following performance goal(s) for the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities:  Improve the health and quality of life for people with disabling or potentially disabling conditions.  

For more information, click here. 

R & D to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect

The Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood is requesting proposals for research and demonstration projects to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Amount: $1,240,000 for a 40-month

Date due: January 19, 2010

The QIC-EC will support 3-5 research and demonstration (R&D) projects that show promise of generating robust evidence and new knowledge related to the following overarching research question: How and to what extent do collaborations that increase protective factors and decrease risk factors in core areas of the social ecology result in optimal child development, increased family strengths, and decreased likelihood of child maltreatment, within families of young children at high-risk for child maltreatment?

In their approach to this question, R&D projects must target high-risk families who have an infant between the ages of birth to 24 months at the inception of the project, and for whom there has been no substantiated Child Protective Services report in the 24 months preceding acceptance into the project.

For more information, click here.

Trainer for WISE (Oregon Department of Education)

The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) is requesting proposals from eligible individuals to provide school staff trainings in Standards and Assessment, Mapping and Alignment, and selected sexuality education curriculum at selected schools through criteria determined by the Working to Institutionalize Sex Ed (WISE) in Oregon Workgroup as required by the Grove/Packard Foundation Grant.

Amount: $40,000 - $70,000

Date due: October 8, 2009

The Contractor will work in partnership with the ODE Sexuality Education program specialist and the Health Education program specialist to provide capacity-building Training of Trainers (TOT) for the Healthy Kids Learn Better (HKLB) Cadre of Trainers in the ODE selected sexuality education curriculum, standards and assessment (S/A), and mapping and alignment (M/A) including Health Education Curriculum Analysis (HECAT).

For more information, email phyllis.reynolds@state.or.us.

Call for Presenters at the 2010 Community-Campus Partnerships Conference (Portland)

Excerpted from Northwest Health Foundation E-News (September 2009).

"Northwest Health Foundation is a major partner for the eleventh annual conference for Community-Campus Partnerships for Health taking place from May 12-15, 2010 in Portland and we invite you to share your knowledge, wisdom and experience! You are encouraged to submit a proposal for a session or poster presentation at the conference.

The conference is titled "Creating the Future We Want to Be: Transformation through Partnerships." Proposals are due Friday, October 16, 2009.

If you're interested, download the call for proposals at:

http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/conf10-cfp.html

The CCPH conference draws diverse participants who share a commitment to social justice and a passion for the power of partnerships to transform communities and academe. All CCPH conference participants, whether they are community activists, students, faculty, CEOs, foundation program officers, etc., are embraced for the knowledge, wisdom and experience they bring to the table."

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) -- includes Education

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation including education. REU Sites must have a well-defined common focus that enables a cohort experience for students. These projects may be based in a single discipline or academic department, or on interdisciplinary or multi-department research opportunities with a coherent intellectual theme.

Amount: Varies

Due: October 22, 2009

REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program. This solicitation features two mechanisms for support of student research: (1) REU Sites are based on independent proposals to initiate and conduct projects that engage a number of students in research. REU Sites may be based in a single discipline or academic department, or on interdisciplinary or multi-department research opportunities with a coherent intellectual theme. Proposals with an international dimension are welcome. A partnership with the Department of Defense supports REU Sites in DoD-relevant research areas.

For more information, click here.

Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)

The following NIH AREA grant program is aimed specfically at institutions such as WOU that do not typically receive NIH funding. AREA grant (R15) applications to support new biomedical, behavioral or clinical research projects proposed by faculty members of eligible colleges, universities, schools, and components of domestic institutions. It is anticipated that investigators supported under the AREA program will benefit from the opportunity to conduct independent research; that the grantee institution will benefit from a research environment strengthened through AREA grants and sustained by participation in the numerous and diverse extramural programs of the NIH; and that students will benefit from exposure to and participation in scientific research in the biomedical, behavioral and clinical sciences.

Amount: $300,000 for up to 3 years

Due: September 24, 2009

At institutions that have not been major recipients of NIH support, AREA grants may support, new or renewal, meritorious projects in biomedical, behavioral research or clinical research, including:

• pilot research projects and feasibility studies
• development, testing, and refinement of research techniques
• secondary analysis of available data sets
• similar discrete research projects that demonstrate research capability

For more information, click here.

Role of Human-Animal Interaction in Child Health & Development

The purpose of this grant is to build an empirical research base on how children perceive, relate to and think about animals; how pets in the home impact children's social and emotional development and health (e.g. allergies, the immune system, asthma, mitigation of obesity); and whether and under what conditions therapeutic uses of animals is safe and effective.

Amount: $50,000 (R03 -- Small Research Grant Awards); $500,000 (R01 -- Large Grant Awards)

Due: November 19, 2009

Projects should be theoretically based and seek to answer questions that address key developmental, health and safety issues regarding the interactions of children and youth with animals in the home or therapeutic settings. Research to identify biobehavioral markers also is encouraged. Such work could not only inform the field about traits that make particular animals more suitable for interaction with individuals in certain settings, but could also be useful in identifying animal models of gene-behavior associations in humans. Physiologic measures (e.g. neuroendocrines, genetic, heart rate, neuroimaging), as well as direct or observational measures of behavioral, cognitive, psychosocial, and/or psychoeducational outcomes are encouraged.

For more information on the R03 competition, click here. For more information on the R01 competition, click here.

Small Grant Program for Conference Support (NIH)

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), announces its continued interest in supporting conferences through its Small Grant Program for Conference Support. AHRQ seeks to support conferences that help to further its mission to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. The types of conferences eligible for support include:

1. Research development - conferences where issues or challenges in the delivery of health services are defined and a research agenda or strategy for studying them is developed;
2. Design and methodology - conferences where methodological and technical issues of major importance in the field of health services research are addressed or new designs and methodologies are developed;
3. Dissemination conferences - where research findings are summarized and communicated broadly to organizations and individuals that have the capability to use the information to improve the outcomes, quality, access to, and cost and utilization of health care services; and/or,
4. Research Training, Infrastructure and Career Development-conferences where research faculty and students are brought together with users of research to develop, share and disseminate research products, experiences, curricula, syllabi, approaches or core competencies required to train individuals from multi- and interdisciplinary backgrounds or prepare developing or emerging research institutions to conduct and translate research related to fostering improvements in health care delivery in the US.

Amount: $50,000

Due: October 20, 2009

AHRQ is especially interested in supporting conferences that demonstrate strategies which include plans for disseminating conference materials and products beyond the participants attending the event. Such strategies might include, but are not limited to, submitting articles for publication, posting information on a Web site, and seeking formal opportunities to discuss conference information with others.

For more information, click here.

Youth Empowerment Program

The Office of Minority Health announces funding for the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) to address unhealthy behaviors in at-risk minority youth and provide them opportunities to learn more positive life styles and enhance their capacity to make healthier life choices. The YEP is designed to test innovative approaches to promoting healthy behaviors.

Amount: $300,000/year for 3 years

Due: September 1, 2009

Proposals must result in the following outcomes: (1) reduction in or elimination of high risk behaivors; (2) strengthening of protective/resiliency factors; (3) development of sustainable basic life skills needed to deal with the demands of everyday life; and (4) development of skills and behaviors that lead to healthier lifestyle choices.

For more information, click here.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program provides two years of support to postdoctoral scholars at all stages of their careers to build the nation’s capacity for research and leadership to address the multiple determinants of population health and contribute to policy change.

Amount: $92,000

Due: October 2, 2009

The program is based on the principle that progress in the field of population health depends upon multidisciplinary collaboration and exchange. Its goal is to improve health by training scholars to:

• investigate the connections among biological, genetic, behavioral, environmental, economic and social determinants of health; and
• develop, evaluate and disseminate knowledge and interventions that integrate and act on these determinants to improve health.

The program is intended to produce leaders who will change the questions asked, the methods employed to analyze problems and the range of solutions to reduce population health disparities and improve the health of all Americans.

For more information, click here.

Improving Diet and Physical Activity Assessment (R01)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of the Director (OD) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), encourages innovative research to enhance the quality of measurements of dietary intake and physical activity.

Amount: $250,000 - $600,000

Due: October 5, 2009 (letter of intent due September 5, 2009)

Applications submitted under this FOA may include development of: novel assessment approaches; better methods to evaluate instruments; assessment tools for culturally diverse populations or various age groups, including children and older adults; improved technology or applications of existing technology; statistical methods to assess or correct for measurement errors or biases, methods to investigate the multidimensionality of diet and physical activity behavior through pattern analysis; or integrated measurement of diet and physical activity along with the environmental context of such behaviors.

For more information, click here.

Enduring Questions: Pilot Course Grant

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announces the availability of the Enduring Questions grant program supports a faculty member’s development of a new course that will foster intellectual community through the study of an enduring question. This course will encourage undergraduate students and a teacher to grapple with a fundamental question addressed by the humanities, and to join together in a deep and sustained program of reading in order to encounter influential thinkers over the centuries and into the present day.

Amount: $25,000

Due: September 15, 2009

An Enduring Questions grant supports the development of a new undergraduate humanities course that must be taught at least twice during the grant period. The grant supports the work of a faculty member in designing, preparing, and assessing the course. It may also be used for ancillary activities that enhance faculty-student intellectual community, such as visits to museums and artistic or cultural events. An Enduring Questions course may be taught by a faculty member from any department or discipline in the humanities or by a faculty member outside the humanities (e.g., astronomy, biology, economics, law, mathematics, medicine, psychology), so long as humanities sources are central to the course.

For more information, click here.