Seeking Applications
Awards of approximately $10,000
Apply by February 15th, 2023
See this call for applications as a PDF file.
We are seeking applications for Spark Grants focused on the “Health of Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Populations” in response to NOSI-MD-22-012. Spark Grants are small (approximately $10,000) grants for MPC members with research needs that have the potential to turn into larger, externally funded projects. Spark Grants fund urgent and time-sensitive research opportunities, such as access to a data set, the swift collection of timely data for preliminary analyses, graduate research assistant time, summer salary for faculty to collect data or conduct analyses, or the quick assembly of new interdisciplinary groups that include scholars outside the University of Minnesota. The goal of this targeted opportunity is to support you to submit an R01 to NICHD in June 2023 or October 2023.
Topics of interest to NICHD include, but are not limited to research on
- Health disparities between SGM youth and/or young adults and their heterosexual and/or cisgender peers, including:
- Risk and protective factors that mediate or moderate health disparities
- Demographic, economic, and social characteristics that may affect health, development, and access to care
- Individual, relational, and structural factors related to disparities in gynecological, reproductive, and pregnancy-related outcomes and care
- Impact of bullying and teen dating violence on social, emotional, and psychological development
- Inclusion of SGM populations in large-scale population-representative surveys, especially longitudinal studies, to improve studies of health disparities
- Design, implementation, and/or evaluation of interventions for SGM populations, including interventions to:
- Reduce inequities in and improve sexual and reproductive healthcare and outcomes
- Reduce the prevalence and impact of bullying and dating violence affecting SGM youth and young adults
- Address the effectiveness of violence-related screening, prevention, treatment, and/or case management for SGM youth and adolescents along with appropriate referrals and linkages to services, resources, and support within the community
- Development and validation of measures, instruments, and/or methods to improve research on SGM populations, including:
- Measures of sexual orientation and gender identity for use among youth populations and/or among persons with disabilities
- Measures or methods to capture changes in sexual orientation and gender identity over time, especially during the transition from adolescence to adulthood
- Methods for estimating the size and characteristics of small, hard-to-reach populations
- Measures or methods to capture the effects of intersectionality with other NIH-designated health disparities populations and/or disability status
- Studies among SGM youth and/or young adult populations that examine the effects of hormonal and surgical therapies, including how they are mediated or moderated by timing and/or duration, on:
- Obesity, growth, endocrine function, musculoskeletal health, and pubertal maturation
- Gynecological outcomes, reproductive function, fertility options, fertility preservation, and gamete quality
- Differences in pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic properties of medications
- Socioemotional outcomes, brain development and function, and cognition
- Research on clinical care for SGM children, adolescents, and young adults, including:
- Service provision in pediatric primary and/or emergency care
- Access to and use of trauma-informed care among youth and young adults exposed to violence
The spark grant applications are short (to facilitate quick turnaround). The Call for Proposals is attached; the application portal is here. Although we are open to applications on any topic of relevance to MPC’s Primary Research Areas, it is important that proposed activities also fit the mission of NICHD’s Population Dynamics Branch. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis but we encourage applicants to submit to this targeted opportunity by February 15th.
Please read over the attached Call for Proposals for details on how to apply and on how the review process works.
If you have questions, please send them to Claire Kamp Dush (kampdush@umn.edu) and/or Gina Rumore (grumore@umn.edu).