This initiative will support intervention research to address the impact of structural racism and discrimination on minority health and health disparities.
Research projects must address structural racism and discrimination (SRD) in one or more NIH-designated populations with health disparities in the US and should address documented disparities in health outcomes. Applications are expected to provide a justification for why the specific types of SRD included constitute SRD, such as how the racism or discrimination is structural rather than reflecting individual-level behavior and how the SRD results in differential treatment or outcomes for less advantaged individuals, groups or populations. For example, with a project examining discriminatory school disciplinary practices, documentation of different overall rates of student suspensions or expulsions by race/ethnicity would not be sufficient to label this pattern as SRD. However, different rates of student suspensions or expulsions by race/ethnicity for the same type of student behavior or violation could be evidence of SRD. Applications are also expected to provide a conceptual model identifying hypothesized pathways between the SRD and health outcomes. Potential health outcomes may reflect health status; health condition-specific or all-cause disability, quality of life, mortality and morbidity; biological measures that reflect cumulative exposures to and effects of SRD; health behaviors; or access to, utilization of, or quality of health care.
The mission of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is to discover how the environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives. NIEHS is interested in applications that are within scope of our 2018-2023 Strategic Plan, that meet the criteria established in this FOA, and focus on intervention research that mitigates or prevents the impacts of environmental exposures on communities due to structural racism and discrimination (SRD). Examples of environmental exposures which are considered of primary interest for NIEHS include but are not limited to: industrial chemicals or manufacturing byproducts, metals, pesticides, herbicides, air pollutants and other inhaled toxicants, particulates, or fibers, fungal, and bacterial or biologically derived toxins. Applicants are strongly encouraged to utilize community engaged research approaches that ensure equity, such as including community partners as part of the research team along with letters of support from community partners. Applications that demonstrate collaborative (i.e., community-academic partnerships) intervention approaches to address the negative health effects of SRD across multiple populations with environmental health disparities will be prioritized. NIEHS is particularly interested in intervention research on a subtype of SRD - environmental racism. For the purposes of this FOA, environmental racism includes the use of racist and discriminatory practices in determining which communities receive health-protective (i.e., green space) or health-harming infrastructure (i.e., industrial complexes). Areas of specific interest to NIEHS include, but are not limited to:
- Interventions that prevent or mitigate single or combined environmental exposures disproportionately affecting the health of one or more communities impacted by environmental racism
- Interventions that address the disproportionate health impacts of exposures due to climate change, extreme weather and natural or human caused disasters on communities affected by environmental racism
- Interventions that prevent or mitigate disproportionate exposures in the built environment (e.g., mold or lead in housing, lack of greenspace) attributed to systemic neighborhood disinvestment
- Interventions that address the role of environmental racism in occupational exposures
- Interventions that promote the resiliency of communities experiencing environmental racism
Application Deadline: March 24, 2023
Announcement: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-23-112.html
