Limited Competition: Specialized Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research (P50) | RFA MD 20 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MD 20 001

The Limited Competition: Specialized Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research (P50) funding opportunity (RFA-MD-20-001) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) discretionary grant program designed to support specialized research centers that take on environmental health disparities as a core scientific and public health challenge. The FOA emphasizes multidisciplinary, center-based work that not only studies how unequal environmental conditions affect health, but also helps develop practical pathways to reduce or eliminate those inequities. In this context, environmental health disparities are defined broadly as differences in health outcomes that are driven or worsened by disproportionate harmful exposures tied to the physical, chemical, social, and built environments. That framing makes room for research spanning classic environmental toxicants as well as neighborhood conditions, infrastructure, and social determinants that shape exposure and risk.

The mechanism is a P50 specialized center grant, which typically implies an integrated program made up of multiple, connected research projects and shared activities that function together as a coherent center rather than a single stand-alone study. The FOA calls for a combination of multidisciplinary research, research capacity building, and community-engaged research. In practice, that means applicants are expected to bring together investigators from different fields (for example, environmental health, epidemiology, exposure science, biostatistics, clinical research, social sciences, implementation science, and related areas) and to show how their projects collectively address real-world disparities in exposures and health effects. The inclusion of research capacity building signals that the program is also intended to strengthen the ability of institutions and their partners to conduct sustained environmental health disparities research over time, including developing people, methods, infrastructure, and durable partnerships that can outlast a single grant cycle. The explicit focus on community-engaged research also indicates that affected communities are not meant to be treated as passive study populations; instead, meaningful involvement of community stakeholders is expected as part of identifying priorities, shaping research questions, interpreting findings, and supporting translation of results into action.

Eligibility is centered on U.S. institutions of higher education, including public and state-controlled universities and private universities. The FOA also highlights eligibility for several categories of institutions that often serve populations disproportionately affected by environmental burdens, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs). At the same time, the competition is limited and does not allow foreign participation: non-U.S. entities are not eligible to apply, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components (as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement) are not allowed. This keeps the work fully domestic in terms of applicant organizations and project components.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed under the environment and health activity area and is associated with CFDA numbers 93.113 and 93.307. The original posting date was 2019-09-23 and the original application due date was 2019-11-22. The listed award ceiling is $950,000, indicating the maximum amount expected per award under the announcement, and the FOA notes expected awards but does not provide a number in the supplied data. Overall, the program is structured to fund center-level efforts that combine rigorous science with partnership-driven, community-relevant approaches, with the end goal of producing knowledge and strategies that measurably reduce unequal environmental exposures and the health harms that follow from them.

• The National Institutes of Health in the environment, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Specialized Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research (P50)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.307.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-09-23.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-11-22. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $950,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others.

Apply for RFA MD 20 001

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