Deadline:

Jan 29, 2008 - Closed

Program Area:

Pioneer

Purpose:

Health Games Research: Advancing Effectiveness of Interactive Games for Health is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that funds research to enhance the quality and impact of interactive games that are used to improve health. The goal of the program is to advance the innovation, design and effectiveness of health games and game technologies so that they help people improve their health-related behaviors and, as a result, achieve significantly better health outcomes.

Read the related news release, $8.25-Million Research Program to Investigate Design Strategies and Benefits of Interactive Games to Improve Health and Health Care.

Program Information:

• Call for Proposals


• Overview (PDF)

Eligibility & Selection Criteria:

• Applicants must be organizations such as universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and other entities that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations as defined under Section 509(a).
• Applicant organizations must be based in the U.S. or its territories.
• The focus of this program is the United States. Studies to be conducted in other countries will be considered only if they have the potential to improve the health of U.S. citizens.
• For-profit organizations may participate as subcontractors or consultants on the project team, but the applicant organization must be a university, nonprofit organization, government agency or other entity, and the principal investigator must be employed there more than 50 percent of the time.

Proposals must present a well-designed research plan that will lead to better understanding of the ways in which people experience, process and respond to specific features of health games. Proposals also must show promise that study findings will help improve the state of knowledge and practice related to health game design.

Read the Call for Proposals for complete eligibility and selection criteria.

Key Dates:

• December 7, 2007 (3 p.m. ET) and December 13, 2007 (4 p.m. ET)—Optional Web conference calls for potential applicants. Archive recordings of the conference calls are available at www.healthgamesresearch.org.
• January 29, 2008 (3 p.m. ET)—Deadline for receipt of proposals.
• May 1, 2008—Grant start date.
• May 6–7, 2008—Annual program meeting in Baltimore
• May 8–9, 2008—Games for Health Conference in Baltimore

Total Award:

• Up to $2 million will be available in this first round of funding.
• Up to 15 grants of between $50,000 and $200,000 each will be awarded to projects lasting up to two years.

Contact:

Jennifer Dobossy, program associate
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
HealthGamesResearch@rwjf.org
Office: (888) 635-7433

Related Materials:

• View Program FAQs