Funding

Announcement of 2022-2023 I-HEALTH Pilot Grant Awardees

Research Centers in Minority Institutions

The purpose of the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program is to expand the national capacity for research in the health sciences by providing cooperative agreement support to institutions that offer doctorate degrees in the health professions or in a health-related science and have a historical and current commitment to educating underrepresented students, and for institutions that deliver health care, and provide clinical services to medically underserved communities. The primary goals of the RCMI specialized centers are to:

Enhance institutional research capacity to conduct world-class basic biomedical, behavioral, and/or clinical research;
Enable all levels of investigators to become more successful in obtaining competitive extramural support, especially from NIH, particularly for research on diseases and conditions that disproportionately impact minority and health disparity populations;
Foster environments conducive to career development and enhancement for post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty, and other early stage investigators;
Enhance the tools for, conduct of, and dissemination of research generally and specifically for advancing minority health and preventing and eliminating health disparities; and
Establish sustainable relationships with community-based organizations that will partner with the RCMI Institution.

Cancer Center of Excellence Designation (new considerations only)

The Cancer Center of Excellence designation from the Florida Department of Health is intended to recognize organizations that demonstrate excellence in patient-centered coordinated care for persons undergoing cancer treatment and therapy in Florida. The goal of the Cancer Center of Excellence program is to encourage excellence in cancer care in Florida and attracting and retaining the best cancer care professionals to the state. Further, the designation seeks to increase national recognition of Florida organizations (e.g., as a National Cancer Institute Designated Cancer Center). The designation of a Cancer Center of Excellence is based on a systems approach to improving the quality of cancer care. Collectively, Florida can be a preferred destination for quality cancer care.

Emerging Technologies for New Solutions in Global Health Priority Areas

A set of rapidly-evolving technologies is changing the world and expanding the realm of the possible. These emerging technologies include – but are not limited to – artificial intelligence, materials science, wearable sensors, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, microscopy, augmented and virtual reality, geospatial mapping, robotics and DNA sequencing. The capabilities of some of these technologies are increasing at an exponential rate, and their potential for impact is becoming apparent in an increasingly diverse set of areas. There is now an opportunity to build on these advances and explore new applications of these technologies – singly or in combination – to provide new ways of solving the key challenges in global health.

Of specific interest to I-HEALTH are materials science for the design of laboratory model systems enabling investigation of new aspects of disease mechanisms (including pathogen persistence) or response to therapy, or enabling high-throughput screening assays (including culture systems to recapitulate complex biological systems). Focus areas include synthetic biology approaches to develop highly sensitive diagnostics (e.g., infectious disease diagnostics based on CRISPR technology) and nanotechnology for the creation of sensitive and specific biosensors.

Feasibility Studies to Build Collaborative Partnerships in Cancer Research

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites P20 planning grant applications for developing collaborative partnership between institutions serving underserved health disparity populations and underrepresented students (ISUPS) and NCI-designated Cancer Centers (or Cancer Centers with highly integrated cancer research programs). This FOA is designed to facilitate the planning and execution of focused collaborations in cancer-related research, research experience, and research education. A major goal of the NCI P20 partnership programs is to provide support for investigators at ISUPS and Cancer Centers to conduct cancer research pilot projects and cancer research education program. The purpose of the pilot projects and education program is to allow awardees to obtain preliminary data that will lead to competitive grant applications for funding by the NIH/NCI and/or other Federal/Nonfederal agencies.