Wednesday, March 14, 2012

RWJF Healthy Eating Research



Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The 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.

This call for proposals (CFP) is for two types of awards aimed at providing key decision- and policy-makers with evidence to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. The award types are: Round 7 grants and RWJF New Connections grants awarded through the Healthy Eating Research program.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

NIDDK Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) (R25)


NIDDK Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) (R25)
(RFA-DK-12-005)
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Application Receipt Date(s): May 09, 2012


This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications from institutions to coordinate a NIDDK Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) that targets high school students. STEP-UP is a national program designed to provide eight to twelve weeks of summer research education and training for students underrepresented in biomedical research on a national basis, including individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and individuals with disabilities.
STEP-UP aims to expose students to and increase interest in NIDDK mission areas including diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition, obesity, and digestive, liver, urologic, kidney, and hematologic diseases.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Prevention and Treatment of Obesity, Diabetes, and Chronic Kidney Disease in Military Populations (R01)


PURPOSE
The intent of this FOA is to encourage research on prevention and treatment of obesity, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease in military personnel and their families. Research in response to this FOA can include active duty, retirees, and/or their dependents/family members.  Former active duty members with only Veterans Administration benefits, while an important population for study, are not the focus of this FOA. The unique characteristics of the military healthcare system and of military bases provide a rich environment for testing interventions and tracking outcomes. 
Relevant areas of research include but are not limited to:
1) Translational research, testing or comparing potentially sustainable adaptations of evidence based interventions to prevent diabetes such as the Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle intervention;
2) Prevention of gestational diabetes and post-partum follow-up in women with a history of gestational diabetes reducing progression to type 2 diabetes in post-gestational diabetes mothers;
3) Interventions to control weight gain during pre-conception, pregnancy, and postpartum periods, including measurement of maternal and fetal body composition and metabolic outcomes;
4) Testing weight management approaches (prevention, treatment, and maintenance of weight loss) in active duty military personnel and/or their families; including translation of evidence based approaches to real world settings and populations;
5) Testing weight management approaches to prevent weight gain immediately following retirement from active duty; particularly in individuals at higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes;
6) Testing the efficacy of environmental interventions on military base to enhance healthful eating and physical activity (e.g. interventions targeting commissaries, convenience stores, recreation centers, base day cares or schools, etc);
7) Translational research utilizing unique aspects of the military healthcare system to identify and improve outcomes in chronic kidney disease.
As applicable, investigators should address the following in their applications:
  • Provide evidence that the research team has the experience and expertise to conduct the research study.
  • Provide evidence of military commitment to the research proposed (e.g., base leadership and key personnel support) and feasibility of the research given the operations tempo and personnel demands/turnover in a military setting. 
Collaborations between academic and DoD researchers are encouraged, where appropriate. 
Applicants are encouraged to contact NIH staff to discuss the applications process.

Health Disparities in NIDDK Diseases (R01)

!!!Important PA expires September 2012!!!

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) seek research to understand and mitigate issues of health disparities in high priority diseases within their scope, including diabetes, obesity, nutrition-related disorders, hepatitis C, gallbladder disease, H. Pylori infection, sickle cell disease, kidney diseases, urologic diseases, hematologic diseases, metabolic, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and renal complications from infection with HIV. NINR promotes and improves the health of individuals, families, communities, and populations, supports and conducts clinical and basic research and research training on health and illness across the lifespan.


Link to PA: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-262.html

T2 Translational Research: Research leading to new health care practices, community programs and policies affecting older persons (R21)

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA)  encourages exploratory/developmental R21 research projects on translational research (T2) directed towards development of health care practices, community programs and policies, including monitoring and quality improvement for pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches for preventing and treating key health issues affecting the elderly.  For the purposes of this FOA, T2 translational research on aging is defined as research to gather information needed to develop or evaluate methods of translating results from clinical studies into everyday clinical practice and health decision making (e.g., adapting an efficacious intervention for application in clinical practice and evaluating its effectiveness in different clinical settings). Methods for T2 translational research include but are not limited to intervention studies, systematic reviews, meta analysis, outcomes research and implementation research.


Link to PA: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAS-11-281.html

Home and Family Based Approaches for the Prevention or Management of Overweight or Obesity in Early Childhood (R01)

Purpose. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR), National Institutes of Health, invites Research Project Grant (R01) applications from institutions/organizations that propose randomizedclinical trials testing novel home- or family-based interventions for the prevention or management of overweight in infancy and early childhood. Tested interventions can use behavioral (including dietary and physical activity), environmental, or other relevant approaches.  Applications should focus on infants and young children (to age six years) and emphasize the role of home environment and the influence of family/extended family members and parents (including guardians/substantial care-providers) within the child’s home environment.  The direct goal of this initiative is to fund research that will advance knowledge for innovative approaches to the prevention or management of overweight in children less than 6 years of age, with potential for future translation to applications either in the home or linked to a community setting.  Research should consider the familial mechanisms of behavior such as the role of families in the initiation, support, and reinforcement of fundamental food and beverage consumption, physical activity practices, and sedentary behaviors.  In addition it is of interest to elucidate various underlying behavioral determinants that are crucial to initiate or sustain changes in behaviors that impact energy balance.  Research designs may include linkages with other settings (e.g., daycare, pre-school, or other community venues) or other care providers (e.g., health care providers or teachers) but must include infants or children less than age six years as the primary study participant along with parents, and/or other family members residing with the child.  The overarching goal is to identify interventions that influence parent and child behaviors that contribute to inappropriate weight gain, and thereby improve subsequent health status in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood for which overweight is a known risk factor.


LInk to PA: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-10-127.html

Also available as an R21: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-10-128.html

Collaborative Interdisciplinary Team Science in NIDDK Research Areas (R24)

Collaborative Interdisciplinary Team Science Awards will foster the application of interdisciplinary, integrative and/or paradigm-shifting approaches to address complex challenges in biomedical research relevant to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.  The NIDDK supported R24 grant mechanism is designed to apply the flexibility of the Research Resource Project Grant mechanism (R24) to accommodate many forms of approaches including discovery-based or resource-generating and hypothesis-driven or hypothesis-generating science. Information regarding the mission of NIDDK and its constituent Extramural Scientific Divisions, including Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases (DEM), Digestive Diseases and Nutrition (DDN), and Kidney, Urology and Hematologic Diseases (KUH) may be found at:http://www2.niddk.nih.gov/Funding/default.htm .


Link to PA: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-11-221.html.

Research Dissemination and Implementation Grants (R18)

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support dissemination and implementation studies to 1) develop innovative approaches to translating efficacious treatments and effective prevention modalities for heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders to the clinic, community, and/or other real-world settings; 2) test the effectiveness, sustainability, determinants, and cost-effectiveness of these approaches in real-world settings; and 3) examine the effectiveness of interventions as they are disseminated and implemented in real-world settings to reduce risk factors for and enhance prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-12-063.html

Translating Basic Behavioral and Social Science Discoveries into Interventions to Improve Health-Related Behaviors (R01)


This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), with participation from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, (NIDDK), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH). This FOA seeks highly innovative Research Project Grant (R01) applications that propose to translate findings from basic research on human behavior into effective clinical, community, or population-based behavioral interventions to improve health. Specifically, this FOA will support interdisciplinary teams of basic and applied biological, behavioral and/or social science researchers in developing and refining novel behavioral interventions with high potential impact to improve health-promoting behaviors (e.g., healthy dietary intake, sun safety, physical activity, or adherence to medical regimens), and/or reduce problem health behaviors (e.g., smoking, tanning or physical activity or alcohol or substance use, abuse or dependence). http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-063.html