Nutrition in Underserved Communities Young Investigator Award

If you are interested in applying for the Nutrition Young Investigator Award, please click here for further instructions, and ensure you submit all materials specific to your selected funding path.

Eligibility

For each proposal, the young investigator and his/her/their chosen mentor(s) must be members of the Academic Pediatric Association.

Proposals are welcome from those who are:

• Faculty members no more than 5 years out from completion of all training (fellowship or post-doc)
• Fellows

Exceptions:

• Extended family leave
• Job sharing
• Military service and deployment
• Graduates of APA Scholars Programs that include a focus on research may be granted an additional 3 years beyond completion of the APA Scholars Programs, provided their academic rank is at an Instructor or Assistant Professor-level, or the equivalent. APA Scholars Programs include: Educational, Research, New Century, and Quality Safety and Improvement Scholars Programs.

Applicants requesting extended eligibility should include the following items with their proposal submission:

• An additional statement of 3 sentences or less describing their situation and rationale for this request. This statement should be provided on a separate document and does NOT count toward the application page limit.
• The primary mentor's letter should also support this request for extended eligibility and attest to the applicant's commitment to research.

Receipt of applications is encouraged from individuals who are members of an underrepresented minority (UIM), disabled, or from a socially, culturally, economically, or educationally disadvantaged background.

Previous RAPID Scholars and YIA recipients are not eligible to apply.

Proposals

Young Investigator Awards will be given with the understanding that the project is initiated and completed within 1 year. Projects kick off at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting and are expected to close by the following PAS Meeting.

Proposals should address an important gap in the evidence related to childhood nutrition and/or nutrition-related health issues.

Funding will support original studies involving primary data collection in low-income populations. Secondary data analysis is not permitted. Potential topic areas include, but are not limited to:

• Growth and nutrition across the life course
• Community policies and programs that support optimal nutrition
• Childhood obesity and its associated diseases
• Methods to enhance prevention of childhood obesity in low-income children
• Understanding nutrition-related knowledge and beliefs in low-income families
• Evaluating the impact of neighborhood factors on dietary intake in low-income families

Preference will be given to those proposals that have the potential of leading to projects of a larger or longer term nature as well as to proposals that go beyond merely describing nutritional issues or nutrition-related health issues. To that end, proposals that link with nutrition-related health outcomes or lead to actionable next steps will be more favorably considered.