2022 Spectrum Community Engagement Pilot Grants

Community Engagement Pilot Program

Spectrum offers pilot grants for accelerating clinical and translational research in biomedical and health-related areas. The Spectrum Pilot Program has two major goals:

• to stimulate innovative clinical and translational research and
• to encourage collaborative, transdisciplinary work.

The primary expectation is that these early-stage translational projects will lead to additional research, external support, information dissemination, and most importantly, will develop into longer-term, comprehensive projects. We encourage transdisciplinary collaborations, but this is not a requirement for funding.
 

Program Overview:

The School of Medicine Office of Community Engagement (OCE) manages the Spectrum Community Engagement Pilot Grants Program and is soliciting applications in collaboration with the Health Equity Action Leadership (HEAL) Network, part of Office of Faculty Development and Diversity (OFDD). The intent of this pilot award program is to support:

• Development of new community-engaged research partnerships with shared leadership responsibilities by Stanford researchers and community partners.
   
• Generation of pilot data for community-engaged research studies that will lead to external funding.
   
• Implementation and evaluation of innovative community engagement methods.

The projects must have a community engagement component that highlights ways to incorporate community members’ input in the design and implementation of the proposed project. Research teams new to community-engaged research are encouraged to apply. Please note, a community partner with equal decision-making authority is required to be part of proposals. 
 

Proposals should specifically address any or all of the following, as much as feasible: 

1. Health equity and working with under-resourced communities and communities of color, broadly defined. 
2. Demonstrate knowledge of community-engaged research (CEnR) and/or community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles. 
3. How the research team plans to work with and incorporate input from community partners throughout the study design and implementation processes. 
4. How the proposed project is responsive to community partners’ needs.
5. How the research team will allocate resources to support community partners’ involvement in the study process.
6. How research teams plan to resolve conflicts that arise during the project period.
    

Recommended Reading on Community-Engaged Research Technical Assistance from the Office of Community Engagement

The Office of Community Engagement provides leadership, resources, and valuable guidance for our partners, Stanford researchers, and Stanford Centers and departments through short- and long-term technical assistance and activities throughout the year. Community Engagement Seed Grantees are offered one year of free, in-depth, or long-term technical assistance to spur growth for projects to generate future funding and research.

• Wallerstein, N., Duran, B., Oetzel, J., & Minkler, M. (2018). Community-Based Participatory Research for Health: Advancing Social and Health Equity (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.
• Grumbach, K., Vargas, R., Fleisher, P., Aragón, T., Chung, L., Chawla, C., et al. (2017). Achieving Health Equity Through Community Engagement in Translating Evidence to Policy: The San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership, 2010-2016. UCSF. Report #: ARTN E27. http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd14.160469
• Ortiz, K., Shea, J., Nash, L., Oetzel, J., Garoutte, J., Sanchez-Youngman, S., & Wallerstein, N. (2020). Partnerships, processes, and outcomes: A health equity-focused scoping meta-review of community-engaged scholarship. Annual Review of Public Health, 41, 177-199.
   

Recently Awarded Projects

• Project title: Community Engagement to Develop a Patient Centered Approach to Anemia in Pregnancy (PI: Deirdre Lyell, MD and Elliott Main, MD; Community Partner)
  Community Partner: BLACK Wellness & Prosperity Center
  Summary: Iron deficiency anemia at birth admission impacts too many patients, a disproportionate number of whom are Black, Native American and Hispanic birthing persons. Recommendations for evaluation and treatment of anemia are irregularly implemented, and the contribution of patient and provider factors are not well known. A key purpose of this grant is to identify patient perspectives that contribute to treatment barriers and identify and solidify partnerships between all stakeholders.  We established an Anemia Community Leadership Group (ACLG) comprised of community organizations focused on the care of persons of color, and women with recent childbirth experience; our shared goals are to gather information on the barriers and problems with current approaches to anemia, design interview strategies, and work with an existing Stanford-led multi-disciplinary clinical anemia team to seek additional funding to determine patient centered solutions. 
   
• Project title: Leveraging Citizen Science to Promote Healthy Retail Stores and Foster Health Equity (PI: Abby King, PhD)
  Community Partner: The Food Trust
  Summary: This project involves adaptation of the evidence-based Our Voice citizen science/community engagement model to evaluate the impacts of Healthy Retail programs in East San Jose, California. Using the multi-lingual Stanford Discovery Tool mobile app, community members will record geotagged photos, comments and ratings about features of local retail environments that either positively or negatively impact healthy food choices. In a facilitated process, these “citizen scientists” will then discuss and thematically sort their own data, and use their collective findings to generate recommendations for participating store owners and other local stakeholders.
   
• Project title: Utilizing Digital Technology to Foster Community Engagement and Increase Breast Health Awareness Among Diverse Populations. (PI: Carla Pugh, MD, PhD, Alyce Adams, PhD)
  Community Partner: Bay Area Cancer Connections (BACC)
  Summary: The goal of the proposed research is to build on our prior success at women's wellness events and use this information to take a deeper dive into the multiple factors that contribute to underuse of preventive breast health services among subgroups in our catchment area. This proposal aims to: (1) Develop and implement a multi-pronged educational experience which includes immersive community engagement at two levels: (A) a brief educational video featuring a digital breast exam simulator to facilitate breast health knowledge and engagement in preventive care; (B) a culturally tailored and competent survey to assess breast health experience and knowledge, as well as barriers to engagement in collaboration with community liaisons in various community health education venues; and (2) Use survey data to identify aids and barriers to engagement in preventive behaviors and acceptance of the immersive learning environment and simulator technology. Results of this program will inform the design and testing of a full-scale, culturally tailored community-based intervention to improve engagement in breast cancer preventive practices and services among a wider variety of communities at high risk.
   
• Project title: Reaching Intimate Partner Violence Survivors in COVID-19: Scaling up Education and Empowerment for Community Health Workers (PI: Jennifer Newberry, MD, JD)
  Community Partner: Next Door Solutions
  Summary: Stanford Emergency Medicine, in partnership with Next Door Solutions and Stanford Digital Medic, will work towards a shared long-term goal to support community health workers (CHW) with the essential education, skills, and empowerment to address the connections between intimate partner violence (IPV), health, and community crisis. The overall objective for this application is to collaboratively scale up our recently developed CHW training on COVID-19 and IPV to a broad national and international audience of CHWs. Focused on collective decision-making, coalition building, and bidirectional learning, we meet twice a month with our partners at Next Door Solutions to identify priorities for the digital series curriculum, while undergoing iterative processes to evaluate our products based on CHW feedback.
   

Important application dates

• Request for Proposals released: February 22, 2022
• Optional Webinar for Interested Applicants: Tuesday, March 15, 12 noon. Registration form.
  • Email Wei-ting Chen, PhD, MA, Associate Director for Community Partnerships, if you have questions about the webinar.
• Deadline for Proposal Submissions: Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time)
• Selection of Finalists: May 2, 2022
• Funding Cycle: July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 (no cost extensions are not allowed)
   

Institutional representatives: Not applicable. Because this is an internal Stanford funding opportunity, you do not have to submit your applications through your RPM in RMG or your CGO in OSR for their approval. 
 

Amount and Period of Funding:

Total funding available: $75,000 for an anticipated total of 2-3 awardees. Typical grants will range between $15,000 and $30,000 for one year and must be completed in that timeframe. All unexpended funds will be forfeited if not spent within the 12-month award period. The Office of Community Engagement encourages investigators to consider submitting requests less than the $30,000 maximum, as this may increase the probability of being funded and will enable the award of more grants in this cycle. 
 

Award Process: 

The award process is as follows: 

• Proposal submission. Submit Full Proposal. Final proposal narrative should be no longer than 3-pages and are due March 31, 2022 by 11:59 PM (Pacific Time).
• Finalists notified. Awardees will be notified by May 2, 2022.
• Awardees will be notified: Grants will be formally awarded (July 1, 2022). 
• Presentation of Research Findings: Awardees will be required to present their research findings through a poster at the annual Stanford University Community Health Symposium. 

Although a proposal may span several areas, projects will be awarded only one Spectrum Pilot Grant per annual grant cycle. 
 

Application Instructions

Applications must follow the guidelines below:

• Format
  • Page specifications
    • 8.5 x 11" page size
    • At least 0.50" margins on all sides
    • At least 11-point font size
  • Save your documents as PDFs to upload to SeedFunding (online submission)
     
• A cover sheet (1-page limit; upload as a single PDF) that includes:
  • Title of proposal
  • PI name title, email, and department
  • Mentor name (if applicable)
  • Co-investigator names, departments, and emails – a representative of a community organization is required to be a full and equitable collaborator in the proposal (i.e., comparable to a community PI) 
  • Amount of funding requested
     
• Background, Specific Aims, and Methodology (3-page limit, 11-point; Standard NIH format; upload a single PDF).
  • Please submit background/ statement of need, specific aims, and methodology addressing any or all of the following, as much as feasible:
    • Health equity and working with under-resourced communities and communities of color, broadly defined.
    • Demonstrate knowledge of community-engaged research (CEnR) and/or community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles. 
    • How the research team plans to work with and incorporate input from community partners throughout the study design and implementation processes. 
    • How the research team plans to engage community partners.
    • How the proposed project is responsive to community partners’ needs.
    • How research teams will resolve conflicts that arise during the project period.
  • Also address or include the following:
    • Approvals for animals and human subjects should be addressed ahead of the grant-funding period, including protocol numbers or letters of exemption. Approvals are strictly required for funding dispersal and are generally not a valid rationale for no-cost extension requests.
    • ​If applicable, include approval numbers for animals and human subjects.
      • If not yet approved, reference eProtocol submission status.
      • The eProtocol application must include Spectrum Pilot Grant under "Other Funding" of the funding section.
      • For more information on IRB or APLAC protocol submission, please visit http://humansubjects.stanford.edu or https://researchcompliance.stanford.edu/panels/aplac.
    • For human subjects research, project investigators and their research staff must complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training online (Group 7: IRB BioMed/GCP Research for All Medical Investigators and Staff).
       
• NIH Biosketches: (not part of page limit; upload as a single PDF file) are required for the PI, Co-PI(s), Co-I(s), and other senior/key personnel.
  • For NIH biosketch template and instructions, refer to link here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm.
  • Senior/key personnel are defined as all individuals who contribute in a substantive, meaningful way to the scientific development or execution of the project.
  • Community partner representatives do not need to submit NIH Biosketches, instead, please submit most recent resume or CV.
     
• Budget (not part of 3-page limit; upload as a single Excel file):
  • Use provided budget template here.
  • Allowable expenditures include: investigator’s salary, research personnel salaries, travel (if project-related), and project supplies. 
    • Budget should include some measurable effort for Principal Investigators (PIs), Co-PIs, and other personnel performing work (associate director and program manager can advise, if needed).​
  • Unallowable expenditures include: Capital equipment costing more than $5,000, intellectual property services, and food.
  • Do not include indirect cost expenses. 
     
• Budget Justification (not part of 3-page limit; upload as a single PDF):
  • Use provided justification template here.
  • Your budget justification should provide an explanation of factors used to determine costs on each budget line item in your proposal.
     
• Letter of Support (not part of 3-page limit; upload as a single PDF): Two letters of support are required from a:
  • Faculty mentor or department chair.
  • Community collaborator. The letter should clearly outline how the proposed project would benefit the community, how community input will be incorporated into the design and implementation of the study, and why additional support is needed for the development of a research partnership.
     

Note:

• Preference would be given to projects that reflect equitable sharing of budget resources between academic and community partner(s).
• Figures and tables included within the body of proposal will count towards the 3-page limit.
• References may be included and are not part of the page limit.
• Applications that do not comply with the requirements will not be considered for review.
• Funding will not be dispersed without clearance of any applicable APLAC, IRB, or IRB exemption requirements, highly preferable that clearance is achieved prior to award announcements in May.
• If the research does not involve animals or human subjects, award recipients must provide confirmation.
   

Questions:

For questions regarding the scope of the proposal, criteria for awards, or the review process, contact: Wei-ting Chen, PhD, MA, Associate Director for Community Partnerships
 

To apply for a Spectrum Community Engagement Pilot Grant, please complete and submit this online application. If you have any questions while completing the online application, please contact Ellen Orasa at eorasa@stanford.edu.