EGRP News Flash - April 16, 2012

Final Round of Applications for Research on Climate Change and Health Due May 24, 2012

The next and last due date for applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Climate Change and Health: Assessing and Modeling Population Vulnerability to Climate Change (R21) is May 24, 2012.

The purpose of this FOA is to support small research projects examining the differential risk factors of populations that lead to or are associated with increased vulnerability to climate change. Projects may involve either applied research studies that address specific hypotheses about risk factors or population characteristics associated with increased vulnerability, or research projects to develop general models or methods for identifying and characterizing population vulnerability to climate change. The ultimate goal of this research program is to help inform climate change adaptation and public health interventions to reduce current and future vulnerability of various populations to the health effects of climate change.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) encourages applications with the ability to incorporate long time spans to assess the impact of climate changes on cancer incidence through established physical, chemical, or infectious agents that may differentially impact populations due to their geographic location, genotype, and/or developmental windows of susceptibility. Specific examples of research projects of interest to NCI under this FOA include, but are not limited to:

Vulnerability due to geographic location. Research using agent-based modeling to identify populations living in certain geographic locations for increased cancer incidence due to climate-induced changes in exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, Helicobacter pylori infections, or behavioral risk factors.
Vulnerability due to genotype. Research modeling prevalence of C-C chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5) variants and risk of HIV infection with subsequent Kaposi's sarcoma.
Vulnerability due to developmental windows of susceptibility. Research estimating climate-change-induced increases in endocrine disruptor exposures among pubertal females and subsequent breast and reproductive cancers.

Contact for cancer-specific questions: Britt C. Reid, D.D.S., Ph.D., Chief, Modifiable Risk Factors Branch.

Access the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts for details:

PAR-10-235 (R21)