University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D., has announced a university-wide Food for Health initiative. This program is designed to increase multicampus collaborations and incentivize new research that will address critical food and health issues important to Nebraskans.
A retreat will be held on Nov. 13 to generate ideas and have faculty from different campuses meet with one another. More details, including registration and location, are forthcoming.
A survey of potential interests will be sent to UNMC faculty by email. The hope is to determine faculty most interested in this initiative and the focus of their interest for further discussion at the retreat. Please complete the survey by Sept. 30.
A pilot grant program request for applications (RFA) will be held in conjunction with this initiative. These will include awards for “team strengthening” projects of $300,000, large “team seed grant” projects of $150,000, and planning grants of $20,000. The focus is on building teams that are competitive for larger grants. The anticipated due date for this RFA will be Jan. 6.
Food for Health research topics to be surveyed for interest by UNMC researchers include:
- Diet and the immune system
- Diet, genetics, and environmental interactions
- Economics of food choices and health
- Food consumption behaviors, psychology, and motivating change
- Food deserts (rural or urban)
- Food safety and security
- Health literacy to improve nutrition
- Prevention or treatment of obesity and related effects that can lead to disease (e.g., cancer, diabetes, heart disease)
- Optimizing nutrition in infants, children, and/or during pregnancy
- Nutrition strategies for aging adults or prevention or treatment of chronic disease
- Microbiome in health and disease
- Nutrition and mental health
- Nutrition to improve wound healing, reduce days or other outcomes during hospitalization
- Technologies to address nutrition-related health profession shortages (e.g. nutrition therapy, diabetes education, dental care)
- Telehealth, or other technologies, to motivate behavior change to improve nutrition and reduce obesity