Deadline: 24 September 2019

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is currently accepting applications for a program entitled “Equity-Focused Policy Research: Building Evidence on Income Supports for Low-Income Families with Young Children”.

Purpose

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to support action-oriented research that advances health equity, builds the knowledge base, and informs policymaking to increase access to nutrition supports and reduce nutrition disparities. (RWJF is supporting research on the two other policy areas addressed in the research agenda—access to income supports and ECE—through separate calls for proposals.) Evidence generated through funded projects should inform practice and policy and guide practitioners and policymakers (federal, state, and local) in setting priorities and allocating resources.

The Foundation is particularly interested in research on several federal nutrition programs that serve low-income families with young children and have the potential to help address nutritional disparities. They include the following:

• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides benefits to supplement household resources for purchasing food;
• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides benefits redeemable for specific foods, nutrition education, and breastfeeding support; and
• The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which provides subsidies for meals and snacks served by child-care centers and family day-care homes.

Research on other federal, state, and local nutrition programs may also be relevant to this opportunity, to the extent that they benefit or target families with young children from birth to age 8.

Research funded under this opportunity might clarify the sources of disparities in access to nutrition supports; evaluate innovations that have the potential to improve access to nutrition supports and reduce nutrition disparities through policy change or implementation; assess or review strategies for scaling up effective policies and innovations; or explore new measures to monitor progress toward achieving equity in access to key supports.

Total Awards

• RWJF will make approximately 10 awards through this funding opportunity, totaling $1.5 million. We expect that awards will range from $50,000 to $500,000 each.
• For projects that involve primary data collection through surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, and other methods (or a combination of methods), applicants may request up to $250,000, for a project duration of up to 24 months.
• For projects that rely solely on secondary data analyses, applicants may request up to $75,000, for a project duration of up to 12 months.
• For projects that involve implementing and testing innovative strategies to expand access to nutrition supports, participatory research methods, and/or substantial community partnerships, applicants may request up to $500,000, for a project duration of up to 30 months. The Foundation intends to make up to one award of this size.
• Applicants should request amounts that are consistent with the scope and complexity of the research questions and methods they propose and for carrying out research methods aligned with the principles of equitable evaluation.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicant organizations include academic institutions, public entities and private nonprofit organizations, state and local government agencies, and for-profit organizations.
• All organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
• Applicants also may represent partnerships between service providers or practitioners and researchers.

How to Apply

Interested applicants can apply online via the given website.

For more information, please visit https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/funding-opportunities/2019/equity-focused-policy-research-building-evidence-on-nutrition-supports-for-low-income-families.html