Apply for Climate Change and Human Health Seed Grants (US and Canada)

They are mainly but not exclusively interested in activities that build connections between basic/early biomedical scientific approaches and ecological, environmental, geological, geographic, and planetary-scale thinking, as well as with population-focused fields, including epidemiology and public health, demography, economics, and urban planning. Also of interest is work piloting new approaches or interactions toward reducing the impact of health-centered activities, such as developing more sustainable systems for health care, care delivery, and biomedical research systems.

Another area of interest is preparation for the impacts of extreme weather and other crises that can drive large-scale disruptions that will immediately impact human health and the delivery of health care. Public outreach, climate communication, and education efforts focused on the intersection of climate and health are also appropriate for this call. This program supports work conceived through many kinds of creative thinking. Successful applicants include academic scientists, physicians, and public health experts, community organizations, science outreach centers, non-biomedical academic departments, and more.

Funding Information

• In the three years between Fall 2023 and Summer 2026, they will dedicate $1M to supporting small, early stage grants of $2,500 – $50,000 toward achieving this goal.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications must be submitted by non-profit organizations or degree-granting institutions in the United States or Canada. Applicant organizations may submit multiple proposals, but an individual may only serve as a principal investigator/project director on one application during each review period.
• This call focuses on developing partnerships. Proposals from single institutions must develop partnerships that do not already occur naturally: for example, proposals from departments that draw students from the same shared graduate program are not responsive to this call. Proposals from more than one institution are responsive. Academic institutions, professional societies, and advocacy organizations are only a few of the appropriate drivers of proposals. Only non-profit institutions may be supported by BWF’s award, but non-profits may involve for profit organizations in their proposals. This program does not support biomedical research projects proposed by individual investigators, but only by collaborative teams.
• Eligible proposals will include rationale/vision for the project, including who it is intended to impact.
• Individuals may only serve twice as directors (principal investigators/project directors) for proposals supported over time by this program. Current and past awardees from other BWF programs are eligible to apply.

Selection Criteria

• Selection will be based on the logic of the proposed activity, its potential impact on stimulating development of effective partnerships that may influence understanding of the interplay between climate change and human health or model effective approaches to changing how people, systems, places, or organizations think about the impact of climate change on human health.
• To be competitive, the proposed support should not be to fund the applicant’s current projects but should be utilized to catalyze new trans-disciplinary effort. They expect to support work that brings new collaborators together, pulls fields together in new ways, or combines separate resources into more powerful wholes. They do not expect to support work that, but for funding, is easily within an applicant’s capacity.
• Proposals involving gathering people should include a description of a backup plan for proceeding if COVID-19 concerns again limit contact between participants.
• Proposals will be reviewed by a standing committee within BWF with advice from expert reviewers drawn from a panel recommended by the National Academy of Medicine. BWF does not provide substantial critiques of unfunded proposals.

For more information, visit Burroughs Wellcome Fund.