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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Community-based Circular Economy Strategies to Improve Local Well-being and the Environment (11/20/25)

Award amount: $150,000 (Canadian)
OR internal deadline: 11/5/2025
UW OSP deadline: 11/20/2025
Sponsor deadline: 12/1/2025
Program Description:
NAPCEA is calling for proposals from organizations to support projects that will help North American communities implement circular economy initiatives and strategies to improve local well-being and the environment. The way resources are being extracted, used and then disposed of in the current linear economy model is putting pressure on natural systems, communities and public health. A circular economy shifts toward sustainable production and consumption patterns by improving management and efficient use of materials and resources throughout their life cycles (from extraction to recovery). This shift opens the door to new economic and environmental opportunities, and secures a more sustainable and resilient economic future for our communities.
The NAPECA grant program will receive proposals and support projects that:
  • Focus on implementing community-based CE initiatives or strategies that address local, specific and clearly defined environmental issue(s) related to an unsustainable use of raw materials, or sources of waste or pollution;
  • Are achieved at the community level where they provide tangible benefits (at the social, material and/or financial level) and promote the involvement of community members and organizations in one or more stages of the project, from its design to its implementation;
  • Propose solutions that demonstrate innovation in addressing environmental issue(s) and improving local well-being that could be replicated in other regions or communities;
  • Include an implementation plan that clearly identifies concrete and measurable objectives and results (through qualitative and/or quantitative indicators), specific actions/project activities, beneficiaries and actors, an approximate timeframe of implementation and a detailed budget. Most results must be suitable for reporting within the timeframe of NAPECA support (i.e., 12 to 24 months);
  • Are carried out by organizations that have the capabilities to successfully perform the project and can leverage other resources (human, material or financial) to achieve greater impact, replicability, scalability and sustainability of the project and its results, once funding has concluded;
  • Create formal or informal partnerships, collaborations or linkages among relevant key actors, such as different levels of government, local or Indigenous communities, academia, youth-led organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector within the North American region, generating the interconnections of key actors that are needed for circularity.
Pre-Proposal Instructions for UW applicants only:
Please submit as one combined pdf labeled with PI’s Lastname, Firstname:
  • A one‐page letter of intent with a description of proposed aims and approach.
  • If the final application requires a statement of broader impacts, please summarize your plans to address the specific requirements on an additional page.
  • CV (not biosketch) of the PI including past grant funding.
to limitedsubs@uw.edu by 5:00 PM Wednesday, November 5, 2025. Proposals are due to the sponsor 12/1/2025 so you will need to have your materials in to the Office of Sponsored Programs by 11/20/2025 if given the go‐ahead by the Limited Submissions review committee.
Other open limited submissions opportunities, as well as the limited submissions review committee review and selection process, are here:http://depts.washington.edu/research/funding/limited-submissions. Please feel free to email us at limitedsubs@uw.edu with questions or information on any limited submission opportunities that should be but are not already listed on that page. If you are interested in other private funding opportunities, visit the Corporate and Foundation funding opportunities page.

Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2025: Demographic Perspectives on Migration in the 21st Century (11/19/25 – 11/21/25)

Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2025
19 – 21 November 2025, Vienna, Austria

The conference will be held in hybrid format.

Migration is a highly debated yet divisive topic in today’s public and policy discourse. In low fertility societies, migration is the main driver of population change and is essential for maintaining a stable labour force. Although it is often presented in simplistic terms, migration is a complex phenomenon shaped by the interplay of multiple drivers and barriers, making it difficult to analyse and predict. Local and global crises, including extreme events driven by climate change, can trigger large-scale mobility both within and across borders.

Demographers have contributed significantly to measuring migration, assessing the contribution of immigrants to population dynamics, and studying population heterogeneity amidst increasingly complex and rapidly shifting migration patterns. Considerable advances have also been made in understanding the differences in migrants’ demographic behaviour, how these evolve as they integrate into host societies, and how life transitions interact with the migration process. Demographic projections and scenarios are essential tools for assessing the long-term implications for future population dynamics, labour markets and socio-cultural diversity, providing important insights for evidence-based policymaking. Much of this research has focused on the destination countries, while implications of emigration in developing regions remain less explored. Likewise, the experiences and challenges of those who lack the means to migrate and remain immobile have received limited attention, despite significant challenges to their livelihoods and well-being.

We are pleased to announce our keynote speakers:

Jakub Bijak (University of Southampton)

Yuliya Kosyakova (University of Bamberg)

Register here.

National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families Fellowship for Early Career Investigators (11/21/25)

The National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families has just opened the application period for its fellowship program for early career investigators researching economic well-being or early care and education (ECE) among Hispanic children and families in the United States. The program will provide seed research funds and valuable mentoring experiences to early career investigators. Fellows will receive $7,000 for use in research and professional development activities.

 More information can be found on our website. Applications are due by 5 p.m. ET on November 21, 2025.   

Kim and Fredriksen-Goldsen Publish Article on Intersectional Health Disparities

CSDE Affiliates Hyun-Jun Kim (Social Work) and Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen (Social Work), along with co-authors Hailey H. Jung and Austin Oswald, published an article in Social Science & Medicine, on “Intersectional Health Disparities Among U.S. Midlife and Older Adults Focusing on Sexual Orientation and Race and Ethnicity: Evidence from a Population-Based Study.” The authors examined health disparities by race, gender, and sexual orientation using the 2013-2023 National Health Interview Survey data and tested for synergistic effects, that is, whether excess intersectional disparities contribute to health risks beyond the sum of disparities from single marginalizations. The data suggests health disadvantages driven by synergistic effects for Hispanic men, Blacks, and additional people of color among sexual minorities, and inverse health disparities for Hispanic and Asian sexual minority women.

Romanelli Publishes Article on Intersectional Disparities in Digital Health and Mental Health Service Use 

CSDE Affiliate Meghan Romanelli (Social Work) and co-authors recently published an article titled, “Intersectional Disparities in Digital Health and Mental Health Service Use Among US Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Analysis of a National Survey” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander participants had lower prevalence of digital mental health use than White peers overall and among sexual minority youth. Racial and ethnic disparities in digital mental health use were pronounced among LGB and sexually diverse participants, but not heterosexual participants. Digital health use did not differ by sexual orientation. However, Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino participants had lower prevalence of digital health use than White peers overall and among heterosexual and sexual minority youth participants.

Deep Mapping Grief and Loss in the Context of Migration – José Alavez

When: Friday, November 14 at 12:30 pm

Where: Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom

We are looking forward to hosting CSDE Affiliate José Alavez from the University of Washington on Friday, November 14 in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative.

The death of a loved one is one of the most challenging episodes in a person’s life. This experience becomes even more complicated when someone dies in the context of migration. Beyond the emotional shock, family members and friends might have to hold posthumous ceremonies at a distance, organize the corpse’s repatriation, and deal with their own need to grieve from far away. In this research, Alavez aims to shed light on the potential of mapping for revealing these intimate and heterogenous posthumous geographies.

To do so, Alavez has deployed three different cartographic strategies. First, Alavez designed a series of narrative maps to focus on postmortem mobilities. These maps reveal that the movement of bodies continues to be influenced by emotional and economic decisions after death. They also display the local and global networks of communication and support triggered by the demise of a migrant. Second, Alavez mobilized a mapping approach dedicated to charting the personal and the emotional (i.e., sensibility mapping) to represent the very intimate moments associated with the experience of death in the context of migration. Finally, Alavez introduces the concept of “mapping-ofrenda” as a form of mourning and remembering. This third project emphasizes the value of the mapping process and the opportunity it offers to turn memories into maps. It also illustrates the importance to reconnect with the past and with relatives from afar. As a whole, Alavez consider deep mapping as an intimate and non-replicable practice, as a desire and a never-ending task that calls for a diversification of mapping forms and practices to reflect and face the challenges of engaging with difficult stories. This work also establishes postmortem cartographies of mobilities, grief, memory, emotions, and solidarity as essential components of the geographies of death in migratory contexts.

Rocha Beardall Publishes Article on Indigenous Data Inclusion and the Colonial Politics of Recognition

CSDE Affiliate Theresa Rocha Beardall (Sociology) recently published an article on “Indigenous Data Inclusion and the Colonial Politics of Recognition“, in Native American and Indigenous Studies. Rocha Beardall and co-author Meredith Alberta Palmer explore two consequences that arise from data inclusion within the context of Indigenous peoples’ relationship with the U.S. colonial state. First, the authors assert that data demands often lack direct collaboration with Indigenous nations and agencies, resulting in data inclusion that reifies and legitimates exploitative U.S. colonial structures. Second, the articulation of Indigenous life using statistical data analyses risks solidifying the racialization and categorization of Indigenous people in ways that obviate their political authority by rendering them as populations rather than polities. Rocha Beardall and Palmer conclude by offering two Indigenous-led examples of data collection and data communication that refuse Indigenous erasure and advance Indigenous futures.