COVID and Health Disparities Proposal Instructions:

• Proposed projects may be from a single applicant or cohort of applicants; the contact PI must have a full-time faculty appointment at UCR.
• Preference will be given for interdisciplinary applications, or applications from a cohort of co-investigators representing distinctly different disciplines.
• The theme of the proposal must be problem focused, relevant to the health disparities as defined by this center and include a community engagement component.
• Topics may include (but are not limited to): Disparities in access to testing or access to COVID care; disparities in clinical outcomes between identifiable populations, etc.

Other issues to consider include:

A. How might the interdisciplinary nature of a proposal lead to understanding and innovating potential multifaceted solutions to the proposed health disparity problem, and;

B. Final expected outcomes; i.e., a publication of a perspective, concept and/or critical review paper in a peer reviewed journal, publication of a collaborative project, or submission of a proposal for extramural funding.

Application format and required elements are listed below.

Examples of project may include but are not limited to:

1. Economic, social, and personal well-being impacts of various containment and mitigation actions (e.g., unemployment, social isolation, stress, mental health, substance use, physical activity)
2. The impacts and behavioral responses to misinformation being communicated about COVID-19 and its prevention, treatment and health effects via a range of information channels, including traditional and social media
3. Downstream health effects from these economic, social, and personal impacts including but not limited to substance use/abuse, mental illness, suicide, stress-related physical disorders, and limitations on healthcare access.

Clinical Research Projects on Health Disparities

• Proposed projects may be from a single applicant or cohort of applicants; the contact PI must have a full-time faculty appointment at UCR.
• Preference will be given for interdisciplinary applications, or applications from a cohort of co-investigators representing distinctly different disciplines. Because these proposals are for clinical research projects, at least one of the collaborating investigators must be an MD with a clinical appointment in the UCR School of Medicine.
• A draft Human Subjects protocol must be submitted with the application, along with documentation that all associated investigators have completed Human Subjects CITI training. Though it is not required that IRB approval is complete at the time of application, no work on a grant award can begin until IRB approval.
• The theme of the proposal must be problem focused, relevant to the health disparities as defined by this center and include a community engagement component. Other issues to consider include:

A. How might the interdisciplinary nature of a proposal lead to understanding and innovating potential multifaceted solutions to the proposed health disparity problem, and;

B. Final expected outcomes; i.e., a publication of a perspective, concept and/or critical review paper in a peer reviewed journal, publication of a collaborative project, or submission of a proposal for extramural funding.

Application format and required components

All applications must include:

• Principal Investigator/Contact PI, Contact information, and co-investigators.
• ABSTRACT (300 words, separate cover page, does not count in page limit)
• SPECIFIC AIMS (One page, does not count in page limit; briefly describing the background of the topic, the hypothesis to be tested, relevance to health disparities, and research approach.)

A. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE (Sections A-E total no more than 6 pages)

B. INNOVATION AND RELEVANCE TO HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH (1 paragraph)

C. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

D. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PLAN

E. RIGOR AND REPRODUCIBILITY, STATISTICAL METHODS

F. REFERENCES CITED (Does not count in page limit)

G. DETAILED BUDGET AND JUSTIFICATION (Does not count in page limit)

Budget requirements: We anticipate distributing awards of up to $50,000 each. Budgets may include funding for research supplies, partial support for graduate student (GSR up to 25%), or postdoctoral fellow or faculty salary (up to $15,000), stipends for community advisory boards, community researchers, and/or dissemination materials, research supplies, workshops or conferences (i.e., honorarium, lodging, food) or for expenses related to publishing or proposal development (i.e., invited experts, consultation). A budget justification is required for all expenses, and must conform to NIH guidelines (Please download this template for the budget submission).

H. APPLICANT BIOSKETCH(ES) – use NIH Biosketch format (Does not count in page limit). For instructions, please see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm)

I. (Only for Clinical research projects) Draft Human Subjects protocol, and documentation of completed Human Subjects training (CITI) for all investigators.

Applications should be sent to Cristina Gonzalez