Deadline:

Feb 13, 2007 - Closed

Program Area:

Childhood Obesity

Purpose:

Healthy Eating Research is a national program that supports research on environmental and policy strategies to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among low-income and racial/ethnic populations at highest risk for obesity. Findings are expected to advance the Foundation’s efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. This second round of funding focuses on children’s food environments and policies in selected community settings: preschool, child-care, school and after-school environments, as well as nearby food outlets.

Program Information:

• Call for Proposals

Eligibility & Selection Criteria:

Eligibility Criteria

Preference will be given to those applicants that may be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or U.S. Territories. The focus of this program is the United States; studies of policies in other countries will be considered only to the extent that they may directly inform U.S. policy.

Selection Criteria

Proposals must demonstrate the ability to produce new information on food environment and/or policy change strategies relevant to children’s obesity-related dietary practices and with strong potential to reverse the rise in childhood obesity. Special consideration will be given to strategies that will benefit children in the low-income and racial or ethnic populations at greatest risk for obesity.

Studies may be conducted as supplements to existing studies. Co-funding is welcome, with sources and amounts fully described in the application.

Researchers are encouraged to seek input from relevant stakeholders, such as policy-makers, school or community leaders, parents and children, to help assure feasible and policy-relevant project goals and outcomes. Proposals should describe the kind of input received from these stakeholders in designing the study and framing the research questions. Applicants should include at least one representative of the community or stakeholder group targeted (e.g., school/child-care official, community leader, policymaker) as a regular adviser to help assure that research and policy analyses reflect critical institutional, community and policy needs and issues.

To help build a multidisciplinary field of research, Healthy Eating Research seeks proposals from a variety of investigators in a range of fields, such as agriculture, behavioral science, business, economics, education, law, marketing, medicine, nutrition, political science, psychology, public health, public policy and urban planning. The perspectives of researchers who are knowledgeable about racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in community settings and food environments are especially needed.

All proposals will be assessed by a committee composed of RWJF staff, national program office (NPO) staff at the University of Minnesota, a senior program advisory panel and other expert reviewers.

Total Award:

Approximately $3 million will be awarded for two types of research grants:

• Studies to identify and evaluate promising food environment and policy changes with potential to prevent obesity among children.
  • 12- to 18-month awards up to $100,000 each.
  • 18- to 36-month awards up to $400,000 each.

• Analyses of macro-level policy or system determinants of food environments and policies that relate to the targeted community settings.
  • 12- to 18-month awards up to $75,000 each.

Contact:

Kathy Kosiak, research coordinator
healthyeating@umn.edu
Office: (800) 578-8636

Related Materials:

• View National Program Office


• View Program FAQs