Purpose:
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit applications that propose to: (1) support the maintenance and resource infrastructure enrichment of existing Environmental Epidemiology Cohorts (EECs) and to (2) enrich data management and data sharing activities to promote widespread data sharing and scientific collaborations, while strengthening scientific and workforce diversity in environmental health.
Background:
The mission of the NIEHS is to discover how the environment affects people, in order to promote healthier lives. As such, NIEHS makes significant investments in EECs that help scientists better understand how environmental exposures affect human health during different stages of life in various populations. These studies advance our understanding of how exposure to harmful chemicals, modifiable lifestyle factors, and genetics contribute to health and disease. Data from these EECs are a valuable resource to the entire environmental health community.
Still, for biomedical research to achieve scientific advances to improve human health in a diverse U.S. population, increased inclusion is necessary in environmental epidemiology cohorts and the biomedical workforce. Data from the National Science Foundation have shown that African Americans (or Blacks), American Indians and Alaska Natives, Hispanics (or Latinos), Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are underrepresented at many career stages in health-related sciences on a national basis (National Science Foundation, 2019 https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304). Scientists from underrepresented populations are less likely to secure federal funding (https://diversity.nih.gov/building-evidence/racial-disparities-nih-funding), and face unique barriers pertaining to access to, and utilization of data sharing resources, especially at under-resourced institutions. Moreover, increased diversity in the environmental epidemiology community is a critical need that must be addressed. The American College of Epidemiology states that the profession needs to achieve racial, ethnic and cultural diversity, at all levels, in order to contribute fully to public health for all populations. See, Epidemiology and Minority Populations: Statement of Principles.
The ultimate goal of this Program is to maintain and maximize NIEHS cohort investments within the environmental epidemiology community by supporting the infrastructure needs to prepare for future research opportunities, improving data collection for understudied populations in environmental epidemiology studies, strengthening scientific, environmental epidemiology, and workforce diversity, and promoting greater scientific collaboration in environmental health science.
Key Dates:
URL for more information:
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-22-001.html
Filed Under: Funding Opportunities