Slots: Institutions should only submit one proposal that reflects the institution’s strategic goals in basic, applied, and implementation research in the area of Climate + Health.
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, January 10th, 2025, 5pm PT
LOI: Open until August 7, 2025, 3pm ET
External Deadline: December 4, 2025
Award Information
Anticipated Award Amount: $Up to 10,000,000 over 5 years.
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Three-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 3-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above, but note the extension to three pages for this specific limited submission.
- (2) List of lead PIs with links to their web pages (please upload in the Other/Letter of Support field in the application portal).
- (3) CV (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund announces the Climate + Health Excellence (CHEX) Centers award. This is a new institutional research and training opportunity that will help institutions bridge the gaps between fields that will have important roles to play in understanding the impacts of climate change on human health and diminishing their effects. This grant will support new discovery toward defining the health impacts of climate change, developing potential interventions, translating discovery science into practical application, and outward-facing work that can help public understanding of Climate + Health or strengthen connections between research and communities whose health has been harmed by climate change. Our goal is to help these Centers of Excellence achieve their strategic goals by supporting activities that help build stable collaborations between people, departments, and institutions. Building interdisciplinary connections between scholars, between approaches, and between researchers and those outside academe form the bulk of the budget.
Basic, Applied, and Translational Research
This program is meant to support institutions or consortia that have already begun to work toward taking on the problem of climate’s impact on health. Consortia might include neighboring institutions with already established collaborations, but of more relevance to this RFP are consortia of institutions united by common interests, for example in the health of residents of the Appalachian Mountains or the Great Lakes region, an urban focus, or a focus on rural life, etc. Whether collaborators are at a single institution or a consortium, we want to see lasting connections developed between those working with basic and applied approaches. We anticipate that support from CHEX will accelerate and enhance the cultivation of new common ground for high-impact basic research, invention, and implementation that can practically change the impacts of climate change on human health.
An Outward Focus
Conveying to the public ideas about how climate change and human health are linked is important for the flow of insights from discovery research into health interventions. For this reason, successful applications will bring general (non-postgraduate) education or public communication into their vision of shared common ground. Either education or communication should be a substantial element of the proposal. Proposals that sacrifice depth to include elements of both may be weakened by the effort: it is better to go deep into one area than to lightly “tag both bases.”
Post-Graduate Training
Institutions or Consortia supported by these awards will develop new lines of research, training, and graduate education that will both energize faculty collaboration and expand interdisciplinary research opportunities for trainees. What graduate departments learn from exploring postgraduate students’ interests in the intersection of climate change and health science may be invaluable to developing educational resources and career guidance for K12 and college students. The training grant element will not be more than 20% of a funded center’s budget.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.