09/29/2023 Edition 108
----- Division of Research -----
Disparities Among Persons Living w/ Disabilities
NIH Health and Health Care Disparities Among Persons Living With Disabilities, PAR-23-309. CFDA #'s 93.307, 93.173, 93.865, 93.286, 93.361, 93.867, 93.273, 93.866, 93.399, 93.846, 93.853. Application Deadline; 02/05/2024

The purpose is to support novel and innovative research that examines and/or intervenes on the underlying and multilevel causes, pathways, and factors adversely impacting the health and well-being of persons with disabilities at the intersections of race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

The focus is to emphasize research at the intersection of disabilities, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) in persons with developmental and physical disabilities. Among racial and ethnic minority groups, the prevalence of living with at least one disability is markedly greater in American Indian and Alaska Native (30%) and Black or African American (25%) populations compared to 20% of White persons. Irrespective of racial and ethnic group, economically disadvantaged persons with disabilities are more likely to experience diminished opportunities for effective independent living driven by factors such as unemployment, adverse living conditions, housing instability, food insecurity, transportation limitations, social isolation, disaster unpreparedness, and low quality of healthcare. Additionally, residents of underserved rural communities are 9% more likely to have any disability and 24% more likely to report having three or more disabilities compared with adults in urban areas. Individuals living with disabilities, who reside in rural areas may also face barriers to healthcare access, accessible transportation, and high-quality education, and vocational or rehabilitation services. Research among sexual and gender minority persons with disabilities is scarce, although it is likely that commonly experienced barriers to accessing culturally competent physical, psychiatric, and specialty healthcare are intensified.

Furthermore, adverse social determinants of health (SDOH) amplify the challenges of health and health-related quality of life (QoL) among youth and adults living with disabilities. Examples include lack of accessible transportation or building entry/navigation, discrimination related to ableism, and clinical misperceptions within healthcare systems that may greatly complicate healthcare access and quality. Moreover, inaccessible and/or non-adaptive clinical facilities, equipment, and communication mechanisms, as well as non-inclusive clinical care guidelines and procedures impede equitable access to appropriate healthcare or lead to erroneous attribution of symptoms related to the primary disability rather than a new or co-occurring diagnosis or health crisis. Greater study is needed to inform appropriate or adaptable clinical practice guidelines for persons living with disabilities with an intersectional lens, as well as to enhance the understanding of the health and health risk behaviors (e.g., alcohol and substance use, prescription misuse, self-injurious behaviors, and interpersonal violence) over the life course. Overall, more expansive research is needed to elucidate the discrete differences, areas of overlap, relationships among factors across the lifespan, and severity of health outcomes across and within populations with health disparities. Therefore, this funding opportunity strongly encourages collaborative, mechanistic, clinical, or interventional research, implementation or translational science, and/or the use of data science research approaches in intersectional areas of study.

Summer Research Team Program
DHS Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions. Deadline for Faculty Members to Apply: 12/09/2023. Full Research Proposal Deadline: 02/09/2024.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Summer Research Team (SRT) Program for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) is now accepting applications from faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) interested in participating in a summer research team experience.
Participant Benefits:
  • A competitive stipend
  • Housing Allowance
  • Limited Travel Reimbursement
  • Follow-on-Research Funding up to $100k
Eligibility:
  • Be a US Citizen
  • Have a Master's or Doctoral Degree
  • Have a GPA of 3.00
  • Be at an eligible Minority Serving Institution
  • Have health insurance coverage
Desalination and Water Purification
DOI BOR FY24 Desalination and Water Purification Research Program: Research Projects, R24AS00016. CFDA # 15.506. Funding Group I – Laboratory-Scale Projects. Up to $250,000 per award for a project that can be completed within 2 years. Funding Group II – Pilot-Scale Projects. Up to $800,000 per award for a project that can be completed within 3 years. Application Due: 11/15/2023.

The goal of the DWPR Program is to increase water supplies by reducing the cost, energy consumption, and environmental impacts of treating impaired and otherwise unusable waters. This DWPR Research NOFO invites applicants to address any of the following objectives:
  • Develop or improve process or approaches to reduce the cost, energy consumption, feasibility, and/or environmental impacts of desalination and water treatment
  • Improve existing membrane technologies, including reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, nanofiltration, membrane filtration, and pretreatment processes
  • Carry out basic and applied research on next-generation desalination technologies, including improved energy recovery systems and renewable energy-powered desalination systems
  • Develop cost-effective approaches for concentrate management that address feasibility, cost, and/or environmental impacts
  • Develop technologies or processes for the selective removal of nutrients and other target contaminants
  • Study methods for the recovery of byproducts resulting from desalination to offset the costs of treatment and to reduce environmental impacts from those byproducts
  • Develop improved intake/outfall methods at coastal facilities to minimize marine environment impacts such as impingement of larger organisms, entrainment of smaller ones, and impacts to benthic communities
  • Develop a better understanding of pathogen removal efficiencies and the variability of performance in various unit processes and multibarrier treatment and develop ways to optimize these processes
  • Identify better indicators and surrogates to monitor process performance in desalination and reuse scenarios and develop online real-time or near real-time analytical monitoring techniques for their measurement
  • Develop a better understanding of the formation of hazardous and other transformation products during water treatment for reuse and ways to minimize or remove them
  • Improve the detection, characterization, monitoring, and separation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and other contaminants of concern
  • Develop new technologies or processes for the destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

Small Surface Water and Groundwater Storage

The U.S. Department of the Interior, through the Bureau of Reclamation, administers the Small Surface and Groundwater Storage Program (Small Storage Program) to promote Federal assistance to enhance water storage opportunities for future generations in support of the Department’s priorities. Reclamation leverages Federal and non-Federal funding to support stakeholder efforts to stretch scarce water supplies and avoid conflicts over water.

Water storage projects are an important part of Reclamation and the Department’s priorities. Surface water and groundwater storage are essential tools in stretching the limited water supplies in the Western United States. Water storage projects enhance and make municipal and irrigation water supplies more reliable as well as provide opportunities to enhance groundwater management abilities and to provide water quality improvements and ecosystem benefits. These projects will provide Western communities with new sources of water and increase water management flexibility, making water supplies more reliable. Water storage projects help water managers increase resilience to climate change and are directly aligned with Executive Order (EO) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Further, EO 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, calls on agencies to advance equity through identifying and addressing barriers to equal opportunities across policies and programs, including grant opportunities. The Small Storage Program will advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative. Established by EO 14008, the Justice 40 Initiative has made it a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments, such as climate, clean energy, and other areas, flow to disadvantaged communities.

Althea Sheets, Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities Development Manager, Office of Sponsored Programs, althea.sheets@unlv.edu, 702-895-1880