- Granting Agency: Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health
- Appropriation Amount: $6,000,000
- Grant Amount: No match
- Announcement Date: January 25, 2022
- Closing Date: Letter of Intent April 7, 2022
Purpose: Identify and evaluate the ongoing and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing specifically on governmental (local, state, tribal, federal) policy and programmatic actions that address two specific social determinants of health: food/nutrition security and housing security. Applications are requested to examine how these food/nutrition and housing policies and programs aimed at lessening the effects of the pandemic impacted health and health equity in individuals, families, and communities from health disparity populations. Health disparity populations include Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, underserved rural populations, and sexual and gender minorities.
Eligible Expenditures:
Applicants can propose research that study one or more policies and programs and their combined impacts on child and/or adult health.
Examples of topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Studies examining changes in food/nutrition insecurity reported by individuals and families following implementation of COVID-19 policies and programs; examination of the impact of such policies and programs on the health of individuals, including diet-related diseases, both in those newly experiencing food/nutrition insecurity and those with longer term experience (i.e., started pre-pandemic)
- Studies of the health impacts of housing-related COVID-19 era policies and programs aimed at mitigating risk factors (e.g., over-crowded living conditions, homelessness, doubling-up, couch surfing, transiency)
- Studies embedded in existing research cohorts that take advantage of their rich longitudinal data. Such studies should take care to clearly address measurement of specific policy exposures related to housing or food insecurity in the cohort and address health equity
- Pandemic-related factors that hinder or enhance the successful implementation of COVID-19 food/nutrition security policies and programs (e.g., disrupted supply chains, depleted food pantries, empty store shelves, fear of close proximity to other shoppers) and the resulting impact on health and health equity
- Existing individual, family, and/or community-level barriers that reduced the widespread utilization of benefits or provisions from COVID-19 food/nutrition security policies and programs – e.g., decreased access to healthy foods (food deserts), transportation gaps, insufficient access to SNAP eligible food markets, etc. and the impact on health outcomes
- Long-term impact of COVID-19 food/nutrition and/or housing security policies and programs for reducing risk and severity of chronic illnesses (e.g., hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, mental illness), symptoms of stress, substance misuse, and/or mental health outcomes (e.g., suicidal behavior, depression, anxiety), that are experienced as a result of pandemic-related food/nutrition and housing insecurity
- Studies of the impact from ending or de-implementation of COVID-19 food/nutrition and/or housing security policies and programs on health and health equity
- Natural experiments taking advantage of local, state, or regional variations in policies, programs, economic circumstances, and other exogenous factors to identify causal factors
- Studies of interactions between COVID-19 food/nutrition and/or housing security policies and programs and other government policies and programs in place prior to the onset of the pandemic
Eligible Applicants:
Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
State governments
City or township governments
County governments
Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)