The next solicitation is expected in December 2008. Click here to sign up to receive funding alerts from Health Eating Research.

 

Special Solicitation Round 2 Call for Proposals is Now Closed

This special solicitation was a funding opportunity from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for childhood obesity-related junior investigator New Connections grants through the Healthy Eating Research program. New Connections grants are for investigators from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities who have completed their doctorate or terminal degree within the last seven years. This round of funding focused on studies of policy and environmental strategies in four areas: food pricing and economic approaches; food and beverage marketing and promotion; improving access to affordable healthy foods in low-income communities; and evaluations of other promising food-related policy and environmental strategies. Target populations include children and adolescents ages 3 to 18. The Foundation places special emphasis on reaching the children at greatest risk for obesity: African-American, Hispanic, Native American and Asian/Pacific Islander children, and children living in low-income communities.

To learn more about the Special Solicitation Round 2 call for proposals, please click here to visit the Healthy Eating Research website.

For more information or personal assistance, please contact Laura Klein, research coordinator for Healthy Eating Research, at 1-800-578-8636 or HealthyEating@umn.edu.

 

About Special Solicitations: New Connections Junior Investigator Grants through the Healthy Eating Research Program

Through special solicitations, RWJF's New Connections Initiative and Healthy Eating Research programs partner to offer New Connections childhood obesity-related funding opportunities to Junior Investigators.

The Healthy Eating Research program is a five-year, $16 million RWJF national program. The program supports research to identify and evaluate the policies and environmental strategies that have the greatest potential to improve healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among the low-income and racial/ethnic populations at highest risk for obesity. Target populations include children and adolescents ages 3 to 18. The program's overall goals are to fund high-quality research, grow the field of researchers engaged in these studies, and inform the public and policy debate. Findings will advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

New Connections grants through Healthy Eating Research have the same overall goals, but with an added emphasis on attracting Junior Investigators from historically underrepresented communities, including people from ethnic or racial minority groups, first-generation college graduates and people from low-income communities. To be eligible for special solicitation grants, a Junior Investigator must have completed his or her doctorate or terminal degree in the last seven years, and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. or its territories.

New Connections grants through the Healthy Eating Research program support the development of investigators who are in the early stages of their research career. These researchers will be offered access to consultants for technical assistance and a structured mentoring program. New Connections grantees funded through Healthy Eating Research are part of a broader network of both RWJF New Connections Initiative and Healthy Eating Research grantees.

To learn more about RWJF's Healthy Eating Research program, including the Special Solicitiation Round 2 funding opportunity and information about grants awarded in Special Solicitation Round 1, please click here to visit the program website.