Deadline: 12-Oct-22
The Healthy Eating Research (HER) is soliciting applications to evaluate the implementation and impact of COVID-19 pandemic-driven policies and programs to improve children’s health and well-being.
This CFP aims to fund research on how policies and programs (such as the COVID-19-related relief and recovery policies and now the post-pandemic recession) impact child health and wellbeing. HER is interested in understanding how social and economic programs and policies related to poverty reduction—such as financial payments to families, income assistance programs, housing assistance or housing security programs, and increased access to social services—impact child obesity, diet quality, food and nutrition security, and other relevant child and family health outcomes among lower-income families and populations of color. Evidence generated through this special solicitation should be timely and policy-relevant and aimed towards identifying policies and programs that advance nutrition and health equity.
Goals
The program goals are to:
- build a research base for policy, systems, and environmental strategies that advance health and nutrition equity in the areas of healthy food access, nutrition security, diet quality, and healthy weight;
- foster a vibrant, inclusive, interdisciplinary field of research and a diverse network of researchers; and
- communicate research findings to accelerate policy, systems, and environmental changes that promote healthy eating and advance nutrition and health equity.
Topics
Examples of research topics include (but are not limited to):
- Relationships between affordable housing/housing security and indicators of child health, including food and nutrition security.
- Impacts of increased benefits or social services for families (e.g., childcare subsidies, universal free meals) on disposable income and diet quality.
- Impacts of COVID-19 relief provisions on racial/ethnic or geographic disparities in health outcomes, such as diet and weight, among children and families.
- Identify structural barriers, facilitators, or unintended consequences of COVID-19 relief provisions at federal, state, or local levels for achieving improvements in child obesity, diet quality, food security, or other child health outcomes.
- Explore how funding for food/nutrition supports in the COVID-19 relief packages specifically impacted family/child poverty, given poverty is a risk factor for obesity, and what would happen if these supports were discontinued.
- Impacts of the increase in SNAP benefits via the Thrifty Food Plan updates on diet quality and health amongst families with children.
- Impacts of COVID flexibilities in the WIC program, what is continuing, and what is working.
- Effect of school meal flexibilities on the nutritional quality of food served by schools.
All proposed studies must have a clear impact on children and families in the U.S. and have the potential to reduce inequities related to child health and well-being. Studies must have a link to child nutrition, diet quality, weight, or food and nutrition insecurity, but can also include other child health indicators. Studies must have a clear, data-driven, and testable research question with a rigorous study design.
Funding Information
- Up to $1.5 million will be awarded through this CFP, with each award up to a maximum of $250,000 and 18 months in duration.
- Proposals requesting lower budget amounts and shorter periods (e.g., 12 months) are strongly encouraged.
Targeted age groups, priority populations, and topic areas
- The target population is children (0 to 18) and families in the United States, with high priority on those who are at highest risk for poor nutrition and obesity, specifically lower-income families and racially and ethnically diverse populations (e.g., Black, Latino/a, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander).
- The COVID-19 recovery plans and now the post-COVID-19 era, provide a unique opportunity for researchers to evaluate the implementation and impact of pandemic-driven policies and programs on children’s health, nutrition, weight, or food security status.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
- Awards will be made to organizations, not to individuals.
- Preference will be given to applicants that are either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or Type III supporting organizations. Additional documentation may be required by Duke University.
For more information, visit HER.
For more information, visit https://healthyeatingresearch.org/what-we-fund/current-funding-opportunities/