Biomedical and Behavioral Research Innovations to Ensure Equity in Maternal and Child Health

by: Michael Saunders

The National Institutes of Health, otherwise known as the NIH, is an agency operating within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that's essentially responsible for looking after the nation's biomedical and health-related research studies.

The grants and initiatives of the NIH are all specifically tailored to help achieve its general agency mission which is to "seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability."

In keeping with this mission, the National Institutes of Health has recently partnered with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to establish the Biomedical and Behavioral Research Innovations to Ensure Equity (BRITE) in Maternal and Child Health Grant Program.

The program initially seeks to increase the diversity of the research who are involved in health equity research studies associated with infant mortality; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; child, adolescent, and/or adult obesity; uterine fibroids; pediatric and maternal HIV/AIDS prevention; violence prevention; health literacy; and outreach and information dissemination.

In addition, the BRITE program also intends to kickstart maternal and child health equity research studies from institutions which are eligible for the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) R15 program.

  (continued...)

Biomedical and Behavioral Research Innovations to Ensure Equity in Maternal and Child Health
  Page 2

About The Author Michael Saunders is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com one the the most comprehensive Websites offering information on government grants and federal government programs. He also maintains Websites providing resources on environmental grants and grants for youth programs.

Additional Resources

category - Health Grants

Biodemography of Aging Program
The National Institutes of Health has formed a partnership with the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in an effort to establish the Biodemography of Aging Program wherein they intend to solicit applications with the intent to conduct research studies regarding demographic and life-science approaches that could potentially expand the current understanding of aging, frailty and mortality.

---

Basic Cancer Research in Cancer Health Disparities Grant Program
The National Institutes of Health has partnered with the National Cancer Institute(NCI) in an effort to establish the Basic Cancer Research in Cancer Health Disparities Grant Program wherein both agencies seek to solicit applications from eligible investigators and researchers who are interested in conducting basic, mechanistic research concentrating on the biologic/genetic causes of cancer health disparities.

---

Genomic Advances to Wound Repair
The National Institutes of Health has coordinated with the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) to establish a program called Genomic Advances to Wound Repair in an effort to jump-start research studies that have the potential to deepen the understanding of genomic mechanism associated with the repair and development of wounds that are chronic in nature, which implies that these wounds have failed to enter into a reparative process after three months.

---

Mechanisms Mediating Osteoarthritis in Aging
The National Institutes of Health, in close cooperation with The National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, has recently established a program called Mechanisms Mediating Osteoarthritis in Aging in an effort to improve and encourage the characterization of new and underutilized models in order to gain a deeper understanding of mechanisms that are involved in osteoarthritic progression.

---