AFRO-NETS> New Research Program in Health, Environment, and Economic Development

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.za>]

New Research Program in Health, Environment, and Economic Development
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Deadline for Letters of Intent: 30 November 2002

The Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the National Institutes of 
Health (NIH) has announced a new research program to support interna-
tional collaborations to study the relationships between health, en-
vironment, and economic development. FIC, with four NIH partners and 
the United States Geological Survey (USGS), has issued a Request for 
Applications (RFA) for the first phase of the Health, Environment, 
and Economic Development (HEED) program. This RFA invites proposals 
for interdisciplinary, international research collaborations to exam-
ine the health effects of major economic development trends that af-
fect the natural environment.

In addition to FIC, the NIH partners are the National Institute of 
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Institute of 
Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on 
Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences 
Research (OBSSR). The current combined financial commitment of the 
HEED partners is approximately $1.5 million per year in support of 
two-year planning grants. The partners expect to follow these plan-
ning grants with a request for full research and training proposals 
for five-year HEED projects. Although not providing financial sup-
port, the USGS will provide support through collaboration with USGS 
scientists.

"One of the major challenges in global health today is to understand 
how economic development and the environmental changes linked to that 
development impact the health of individuals and communities, " said 
FIC Director Gerald T. Keusch, M.D. on behalf of the partners. "The 
HEED program will support research to bridge disciplinary interests 
of development and health economists, environmental scientists, epi-
demiologists, demographers, and other professionals. It will improve 
our understanding of the complex linkages between health, economics, 
and environment and will inform healthcare strategies."

Many low- and middle-income countries suffer from air, land, and wa-
ter contamination; natural resource depletion; and ecosystem deterio-
ration. These conditions exacerbate the spread of disease, place 
stress on poorly functioning and overburdened health systems, compli-
cate disease etiology, and lead to depletion of human and economic 
resources. The combination of environmental and health problems often 
occurs simultaneously with natural disasters, civil strife, and eco-
nomic crises. Economic factors also impact policy decisions and indi-
vidual choices about health and the environment. Much remains to be 
learned about how health, environment, and human behavior interact in 
developing countries to hasten or impede development. The HEED pro-
gram will support new partnerships between developed and developing 
country scientists to expand the scientific evidence necessary to in-
form U.S. and international policymakers in the formulation of envi-
ronmental and development strategies. Planning grants for up to 
$100,000 in direct costs will support travel and preliminary data-
gathering to inform the full five-year research and training grant 
proposals.

Applications for the first phase of the HEED program are due by De-
cember 30, 2002, and the deadline for receipt of Letters of Intent is 
November 30, 2002. The Request for Applications is available at:
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-TW-03-005.html 

More information about the program is available on the FIC website 
at:
http://www.nih.gov/fic/programs/HEED.html

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