Maternal & Child Health Research Program

Within the R40 MCH Research Program, funding is available in FY 2013 to support approximately six (6) extramural multi-year research projects. The R40 MCH Research Program supports applied research relating to maternal and child health services including services for children with special health care needs, which show promise of substantial contribution to advancement of the current knowledge pool, and when used in States and communities should result in health and health services improvements. Findings from the research supported by the MCH Research Program are expected to have potential for application in health care delivery programs for mothers and children. Research proposals should address critical MCH questions such as public health systems and infrastructure, health disparities, quality of care, and promoting the health of MCH populations, which also support the goals of the Health Resources and Services Administration. The "life course perspective" is currently being integrated into MCHB's strategic directions, and can serve as a helpful frame of reference for study proposals designed to address the critical MCH questions defined by the Bureau. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau periodically reexamines its applied research agenda. In June 2003, the Bureau initiated the process of updating its research agenda by convening a work group to exchange information regarding the current and emerging issues of importance in the field. Members of the work group represented State and Federal agencies, institutions of higher learning and other organizations, who are prominent in the field and whose work has helped to advance the field. Based on the individual recommendations of these individuals, the Bureau developed the MCHB Strategic Research Issues (see Appendix B). The Bureau encourages translational research studies that specifically address issues related to MCHB investments and programs. Addressing one of the four strategic research issues is a review criterion worth up to 10 points in the overall score of an application. Secondary Data Analysis Studies (SDAS) Program Within the R40 MCH Research Program, funding is available in FY 2013 to support approximately ten (10) studies that analyze existing secondary MCH data. 


Amount: $100,000 - $300,000


Date due: September 12, 2012


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Improving Diet & Physical Activity

This Funding Opportunity will support research pertinent to improving the measurements of diet and physical activity through the development of better instruments, innovative technologies, and/or applications of advanced statistical/analytic techniques. Research proposed in the applications should be aimed at exploring and optimizing innovative combinations of objective and self-report measures of physical activity or dietary intake in both the general population and its diverse subgroups.  Specifically, this funding opportunity is intended to support innovative research focused on assessments of dietary and physical activity patterns and the settings in which such behaviors occur, not on the determinants of these behaviors or on studies of the causal association between environment and behavior. 

Amount: $275,000

Date due: February 16, 2013; October 16, 2013; June 16, 2014; February 16, 2015

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Healthy Eating Research

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity program supports research on environmental and policy strategies with strong potential to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among lower-income and racial and ethnic populations at highest risk for obesity. Findings are expected to advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. 

The primary goal of this CFP is to fund and communicate strategic and timely research addressing key evidence needed to advance RWJF's policy priorities — providing advocates, decision-makers, and policy-makers with innovative, solution-oriented, policy-relevant environmental and policy studies to guide policy action.

Proposals are invited for two types of awards: 1) Round 7 grants, and 2) RWJF New Connections grants awarded through the Healthy Eating Research program.

Round 7 grants represent the majority of RWJF's investment in research through this program. Approximately $1.7 million will be awarded in grants of up to $170,000 for a maximum funding period of eighteen months. Concept papers may be submitted at any time until August 9, 2012. The deadlines for receipt of invited full proposals are May 31, 2012; July 31, 2012; and October 4, 2012.

The New Connections grants are offered in collaboration with RWJF's New Connections program, which is designed to expand the diversity of perspectives that inform RWJF programming and introduce new researchers and scholars to the foundation. These grants are to support research by new investigators representing populations and communities historically underrepresented in childhood obesity prevention research, including researchers from underrepresented ethnic or racial minority groups and lower-income communities and those who are first-generation college graduates. Up to two grants of up to $100,000 will be awarded for projects of twelve to eighteen months. Concept papers are due May 22, 2012; invited full proposals will be due July 21, 2012.

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Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM

The Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (TUES) program seeks to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for all undergraduate students. This solicitation especially encourages projects that have the potential to transform undergraduate STEM education, for example, by bringing about widespread adoption of classroom practices that embody understanding of how students learn most effectively. Thus transferability and dissemination are critical aspects for projects developing instructional materials and methods and should be considered throughout the project's lifetime. More advanced projects should involve efforts to facilitate adaptation at other sites. 

The program supports efforts to create, adapt, and disseminate new learning materials and teaching strategies to reflect advances both in STEM disciplines and in what is known about teaching and learning. It funds projects that develop faculty expertise, implement educational innovations, assess learning and evaluate innovations, prepare K-12 teachers, or conduct research on STEM teaching and learning. It also supports projects that further the work of the program itself, for example, synthesis and dissemination of findings across the program. The program supports projects representing different stages of development, ranging from small, exploratory investigations to large, comprehensive projects. 

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 27, 2012

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Roadmaps to Health Community Grants

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Roadmaps to Health Community Grants program will support communities working to implement policy or system changes to address one of the social or economic factors that, as defined by the County Health Rankings, most strongly influence health outcomes in their community. These include education, employment and income, family and social support, and community safety.

Grantees will be organizations that participate in established coalitions or networks spanning multiple sectors and perspectives and may include representatives from business, education, public health, healthcare, community organizations, community members, policy advocates, foundations, and policymakers. Applicants must engage community members in the planning and implementation of projects, and must collaborate with organizations having expertise in improving the health of the public. Applicants also must secure 100 percent matching support, including a cash match of at least 50 percent, with the balance as in-kind support.

Amount: $200,000

Date due: May 2, 2012

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Research on the Health of LGBTI Populations

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is committed to supporting research that will increase scientific understanding of the health status of various population groups and improve the effectiveness of health interventions and services for individuals within those groups. High priority is placed on research on populations that appear to have distinctive health risk profiles but have received insufficient attention from investigators. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) highlights a particular community: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and related populations (designated here as LGBTI populations). Basic, social, behavioral, clinical, and services research relevant to the missions of the sponsoring Institutes and Centers may be proposed.

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 7, 2012

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Smart Health & Well-being (NSF)

Through the Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) Program, NSF seeks to address fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease. The issues to be addressed include, but are not limited to, sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, modeling cognitive processes, system and process modeling, and social and economic issues. Effective technology-based solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral changes, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. The high degree of complexity and broad range of the problems require multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers to identify and address barriers limiting quality of life, independence for chronically ill and elder individuals, and other aspects of wellbeing. Fundamental technological advances are also needed to understand the impediments that prevent people from engaging in health-promoting life styles including diet and exercise and from participating in their healthcare decisions.Proposers are invited to submit proposals in two project classes, which are defined as follows:Type I: Exploratory Projects (EXP) - $200,000 to $600,000 total budget with durations from two to three years; andType II: Integrative Projects (INT) - $600,001 to $2,000,000 total budget with durations from four to five yearsA more complete description of the project classes can be found in section II. Program Description, of this document.

Date due: February 21, 2012

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