Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research
NIH Guide Number: RFA-MD-20-001
Council Date: May 21, 2019
Objectives
The proposed centers will conduct multidisciplinary research, research training, and community engagement activities aimed at alleviating environmentally driven health disparities and improving access to healthy environments for vulnerable populations.
Description of Initiative:
Over the past 3 decades, the nation has witnessed a remarkable growth in investments in research-related activities towards low-income, minority, and tribal communities to create healthier and safer environments. While much has been accomplished since the early 1990s, minority and economically disadvantaged populations continue to bear a disproportionate share of environmental exposures and related health conditions. Disproportionate environmental health impacts are rooted in the evidence that some populations systematically experience higher levels of environmental health risk than the general population.
The jointly funded EPA-NIMHD-NIEHS Centers of Excellence (COEs) program (2015–2020) made significant scientific advances in addressing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in environmentally mediated health outcomes and made contributions to easing the disproportional health burden in underserved populations. The program also fostered collaboration across disciplines and enabled multidisciplinary teams of community and academic experts from diverse backgrounds to conduct research on health disparities and environmental health disparities. Building on this program, the proposed Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research (EHD Centers) are expected to continue to stimulate basic and applied research that will generate innovative approaches to alleviate environmentally driven health disparities. The Centers will also support collaborative training, capacity building, implementation and dissemination efforts, and research.
