Systems and Services Research to Address Systemic Racism – Feb 7 (LOI)

Posted by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on January 23, 2024

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invites applications for Systems and Services Research to Address Systemic Racism

The mission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is to improve the health and well-being of everyone in America.

The foundation invites proposals for Systems for Action: Systems and Services Research to Address Systemic Racism. Through this call for proposals (CFP), RWJF will provide funding for a new cohort of research studies designed to produce new, actionable evidence about how to help medical, social, and public health systems work together to address forms of systemic racism. Each study funded under this CFP must identify a specific form of systemic racism that limits health and well-being for affected populations and investigate a novel systems alignment strategy for solving the problem that engages relevant representatives from medical care, public health, and social services systems. The systems alignment strategy to be studied must engage all three types of systems included in the health and social ecosystem in American communities—medical care, public health, and social services.

This 2024 CFP offers two distinct categories of research awards, which are distinguished based on the completion of pilot testing and feasibility testing with the proposed systems alignment strategy. Applicants must apply only to that category:

Developmental Research: This award will support exploratory research and pilot studies to accomplish one or more of the following: (1) improve our understanding of forms of systemic racism and potential pathways for dismantling or disrupting racism through systems alignment strategies; and (2) pilot-testing novel systems alignment strategies to examine their feasibility, acceptability, and potential impact on forms of systemic racism. This award category is appropriate for applicants who have an idea for a novel system alignment strategy but have not previously completed a pilot study to examine the feasibility of implementing the approach and the feasibility of related research strategies. This award will provide up to $100,000 in total funding to be used over a 12-month period to pilot test the proposed system alignment approach.

Impact Research: This award will support studies to accomplish one or more of the following: (1) examine the impact of forms of systemic racism on relevant measures of health and well-being for affected populations, in order to identify potential pathways for disrupting these health impacts through systems alignment strategies; and (2) examine the impact of a novel system alignment strategy on relevant measures of health and well-being for affected populations, with a focus on understanding the strategy’s successes and failures in addressing forms of systemic racism embedded within systems. This award will provide up to $500,000 in total funding to be used over a 36-month period to study the impact of a proposed system alignment strategy and/or a proposed form of systemic racism on relevant measures of health and health equity.

To be eligible, applicants must be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and not private foundations or non-functionally integrated Type III supporting organizations. Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.

Letters of intent are due February 7, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. ET, and upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal by May 22, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website.

Deadline: February 7, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. ET (Letters of Intent)