Deadline:

Feb 6, 2008 - Closed

Program Area:

Childhood Obesity

Purpose:

Healthy Eating Research is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The program 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 RWJF’s efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

Round 3 funding focuses on policy and environmental studies in four areas:

1. Food pricing and economic approaches;
2. Food and beverage marketing and promotion;
3. Interventions and policies to increase access to affordable healthy foods in low-income communities; and
4. Evaluations of other promising food-related policy and environmental strategies.

Program Information:

• Call for Proposals


• Overview (PDF)

Eligibility & Selection Criteria:

Preference will be given to applicants that are 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 its territories at the time of application. The focus of this program is the United States; studies in other countries will be considered only to the extent that they may directly inform U.S. policy.

The following criteria will be used to assess proposals:

• Potential to identify promising policies and environmental changes that could promote healthy eating and energy balance among children and teens, and prevent childhood obesity.
• Potential to help eliminate disparities in children’s access to and consumption of healthy foods and beverages.
• Potential to address key knowledge gaps.
• Relevance and timeliness of project to inform policy action.
• The degree to which the strategies are widely applicable, feasible and sustainable.
• Relevance to the needs of low-resource communities and children in low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations at highest risk for obesity.
• Clarity of project goals, hypotheses, methods and outcomes.
• Use of a clear theoretical framework, conceptual model or rationale.
• Scientific rigor of proposed research and analytic methods, including quality of the measures and data to be used.
• Relevance of the project to the four areas targeted in this round of funding and uniqueness of the project in relation to the mix of potentially fundable projects.
• Research qualifications and experience of the investigator(s) and appropriateness of disciplines and perspectives represented.
• Appropriateness of proposed budget and project timeline.
• Plan for communicating and disseminating research results not only to scientists, but also to policy-makers and relevant stakeholders.

Key Dates:

• February 6, 2008 (3 p.m. ET)—Deadline for receipt of brief proposals.
• April 9, 2008—Select applicants will be invited to submit full proposals.
• May 22, 2008 (3 p.m. ET)—Deadline for receipt of full proposals.

Total Award:

Approximately $3.5 million will be awarded for two types of research grants focused in the four areas listed above:

• Small- and large-scale studies:
  • 12- to 18-month awards of up to $150,000 each.
  • 18- to 36-month awards of up to $400,000 each.
• Macro-level analyses:
  • 12- to 18-month awards of up to $100,000 each.

Contact:

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

Related Materials:

• View National Program Office


• View Program FAQs