Research to Advance Racial & Indigenous Health Equity

Overview

Applications for Rapid Response Research awards are due May 28, 2025; LOIs for New Research Support awards due July 16, 2025. 

Through this Call for Proposals, we will award up to $5 million in research grants to support actionable, solutions-oriented health equity research through two types of funding: 1) Rapid Response Research awards will support early- to mid-career health equity researchers whose work has been interrupted by federal funding shifts; and 2) New Research Support awards will fund community-driven research that uplifts the knowledge, expertise, and power of Indigenous and other historically marginalized communities of color to develop or test solutions that advance racial and Indigenous health equity.

1. Rapid Response Research awards are specifically intended to support early- to mid-career health equity researchers whose racial or Indigenous health equity research was interrupted by federal funding shifts. Project Directors (PD) for this award need not have been the Principal Investigator or PD of the originally funded project. Funds may cover a wide range of costs that were associated with the original research project. 

Rapid Response Research might be right for you if:

• Your federally funded racial or Indigenous health equity research project was directly interrupted by federal funding shifts. For the purpose of this award, interrupted means you received a formal cease and desist or stop-work letter or are unable to access the funds (e.g., the communication with your federal funding agent has been terminated).

• You are an early- to mid-career health equity researcher. For the purpose of this call, early- to mid-career is defined as within 10 years of completion of the highest earned degree for non-tenured track or non-academic positions, or pre-tenure through up to two years post-tenure for tenure-track faculty positions.

• Your background and life experiences are underrepresented on research teams, including Indigenous, Black, Latine, and other persons of color.

• You are not currently receiving more than 25% of your salary from an RWJF grant.

• Your research is aligned with E4A’s mission and values.

Evidence for Action (E4A) grantees are working in a broad range of topic areas to assess the health outcomes of various interventions aimed at addressing key determinants of health, with a particular focus on improving population health and equity.

For this single stage application process, Brief Proposals are due May 28, 2025 at 3pm EDT.

2. New Research Support awards will support research that centers community priorities and expertise to advance upstream solutions to racial and indigenous health equity. Lead applicant organizations must be community-based organizations with a strong track record of racial and/or Indigenous health equity work. 

Letters of Intent are due July 16, 2025 at 3pm EDT.

Rapid Response Research -- There is no maximum number of submissions per organization. However, there is an expectation that there will only be one application for each terminated federal grant or contract.

New Research Support -- Applicants may submit multiple LOIs or serve as a partner for another organization's LOI. There are no rigid restrictions against multiple submissions from the same applicant. However, there is limited funding available and we aim to be inclusive of a wide range of ideas and perspectives. We encourage you to think critically about the relative strengths of the projects for which you are considering submitting LOIs as it is highly unlikely that multiple awards will be made to the same applicant.

Applications for Rapid Response Research awards are due May 28, 2025; LOIs for New Research Support awards due July 16, 2025. 

We expect to award approximately $2M in rapid response grants, with awards ranging from $50k to $200k for up to 24 months.

We expect to award approximately $3M in New Research Support grants. There will be two funding levels, with at least 4 projects of up to $250,000 and at least 4 projects of up to $500,000 funded. Grant durations will be up to 36 months.