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The newly created Southern California Center for Chronic Health Disparities in Latino Children and Families is calling for applications for research projects designed to understand and address chronic disease health disparities among Latinos. The NIH-funded Center will award seven pilot projects per year at $50,000 each in direct costs, for a one-year period.

Interested applicants need to provide a letter of intent by midnight Dec. 13, 2021. For more information, read this program description and request for applications. You can also email Donna Spruijt-Metz at dmetz@usc.edu.

The launch of the Center was announced in mid-October as a partnership between Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and USC, aided by a $24.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The aim of the Center is to fight obesity and related chronic diseases in Latino children and families across Southern California. Its co-leaders are Michael Goran, PhD, a professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine and director for diabetes and obesity at the Saban Research Institute at CHLA; and Lourdes Baezconde-Gabanati, PhD, MPH, a professor of population and public health sciences and Associate Dean for Community Initiatives at the Keck School.

The Center will address health disparities in chronic diseases including (but not limited to) obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and dyslipidemia.

This new pilot funding mechanism is intended to prioritize multidisciplinary team science that is led by investigators who are early-career, new to the field, or from URM (i.e., underrepresented race and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, sexual minorities, and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds), to support their transition to independent funding. We will also prioritize supporting projects.