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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

*New* NIH Common Funds RFA to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity (due 05/28/2021)

The NIH has established a new initiative called UNITE to end structural racism and racial inequities throughout the biomedical research enterprise. As part of UNITE, the NIH Common Fund issued two funding opportunities announcements (FOAs) to bolster innovation, solve challenges, and address health disparities and advance health equity:
1) RFA-RM-21-021 Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity (U01 Clinical Trial Allowed)
2) RFA-RM-21-022 Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity at Minority Serving Institutions (U01 Clinical Trial Allowed)
The FOAs will support collaborative investigative teams or individual scientists who propose unusually innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in developing, disseminating, or implementing innovative and effective interventions and/or strategies that prevent, reduce, or eliminate health disparities and inequities. Additionally, funding opportunity RFA-RM-21-022 is expected to increase the competitiveness of investigators and expand the research base dedicated to health disparities research at minority serving institutions. Research addressing community-prioritized research questions, cross-cutting issues such as social determinants of health across sectors, multiple levels and systems that contribute to health disparities, and/or priority areas of multiple NIH Institutes and Centers are particularly encouraged.
All applications are due on May 28, 2021 by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. If you have questions about the FOAs, please email CFHealthDisparities@nih.gov. NIH staff intend to hold a Pre-Application Webinar for all interested prospective applicants. The webinar date and other details will be posted here. NIH staff will be available to answer questions related to these FOAs. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions are available at this link.
Visit https://commonfund.nih.gov/healthdisparitiestransformation for more information about the Common Fund’s Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative, and please sign up for our listserv:CFHealthDisparitiesResearch-List.
Projects may include a formative observational component; however, each project is required to include an intervention component. To be considered transformative, projects should reflect ideas substantially different from mainstream concepts and have high potential to lead to major improvements in health through the development, implementation, or dissemination of highly innovative interventions to address health disparities and advance health equity.

Looking for Data? NCHS Data Linkage May Be Of Interest

In your population health research agenda, you may be looking for linked data files. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) links health related data, from multiple sources, so that scientists and policymakers can answer complex health questions relevant to all Americans. For example, NCHS-linked data resources have helped answer key health policy questions including: How effective are federal policies aimed at lowering lead exposure in children living in public housing? Are there adverse health effects associated with the mandatory folic acid fortification policy for grain products? Do persons with disabilities have adequate access to health insurance?  To learn more about these data, see here. 

Better Understanding Diet & Cardio-Metabolic Health in American Indians

At the CSDE seminar on April 16th, CSDE Affiliate Dr. Amanda Fretts will present “Better Understanding Diet & Cardio-Metabolic Health in American Indians”. CSDE Affiliate Anjum Hajat will moderate the discussion. Dr. Fretts will discuss major findings from the Strong Heart Study—the largest and longest on-going cohort study of cardiovascular health among American Indians in the United States. She will also describe an on-going clinical trial designed to test the effect of a cooking and nutrition intervention on diet quality and glycemic control in American Indian adults with Type 2 diabetes who reside in a rural reservation community. Dr. Fretts is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Her research interests include nutrition, physical activity, fatty acids, diabetes, and American Indian health.

Register for Dr. Fretts’ Zoom seminar here. This quarter, CSDE is recording the seminar series and posting the links on its website. Visit our site here.

*New* Apply for CSDE’s Summer Grant Writing Program! (due 04/30/2021)

CSDE is inviting applications for its 4th annual Summer Grant Writing Program – a chance for you to learn more about NIH grant-writing and to workshop your proposal with other participants and with experienced senior faculty. Writing a grant in isolation can be mystifying—instead, we aim to create a group experience that is still hard work, but which will be supportive, fun, productive, and ultimately rewarding. All CSDE affiliates (local or regional) are eligible to apply. UW post-docs are eligible to apply only if they plan a training grant centered at UW. Applications from collaborative teams, anticipating a multiple PI arrangement, are also encouraged.  Applications are due Friday, April 30 at 6 pm PDT. For more information and to apply, visit this link. Please email CSDE Development Core Director Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu) with any questions!

In brief, participants will develop proposals over the course of the summer, with support and reviews from senior mentors, other participants, and the program coordinator Steve Goodreau. All applicants must include a letter from a relevant unit head (department/school/center/college/etc.) indicating that they support the application, and that the applicant holds a position that makes them eligible to receive external funding. Letters are also encouraged (but not required) to indicate some form of matching support (e.g. some summer salary, research expenses, or RA support, all paid directly from the unit to the participant).

 

 

 

 

Call for Applications for Summer ’21 PHI-CSDE Applied Research Fellowships (due 04/22/2021)

With support from the Population Health Initiative, CSDE is hosting a third summer applied research program for a team of undergraduate and graduate fellows to address critical demographic analyses of race, age, and households for King County and Public Health Seattle King County.  This summer’s program will build upon last summer’s development of tract level forecasts and add new data and new analyses of historic and contemporary demographic trends across neighborhoods, cities, and places in King County. With new data, the team will see how different kinds of ‘shocks’ to the county differentially influence population distributions. These analyses will provide valuable tools for local policymakers and stakeholders to better anticipate the needs of their citizens. To learn more about this opportunity, read here. CSDE affiliates please share this call widely with the undergraduate and graduate students who might be interested.