2025 Research Seed Funding Awardees
The UIC School of Public Health (SPH) seed funding program develops early-stage, cutting-edge research that contributes to the school’s mission to protect and improve the health and well-being of the people of the metropolitan Chicago area, the State of Illinois, the nation, and others throughout the world.
SPH annually awards seed grants to innovative research projects and early-career investigators. Seed funding allows SPH to support individual faculty research projects. Specifically, seed funding supports preliminary and formative research. These competitive awards fund one year of research and prepare awardees to secure future external funding, primarily from federal organizations, and grow their research program at SPH.
We're always looking to grow our seed funding program for future years. There are two great ways you can be involved. (1) Apply for a future seed funding award–Be sure to read about the application here and be prepared to submit for the next round of funding in Fall 2025; (2) Spread the word–Do you know someone who might be interested in donating to the SPH Seed Funding Program? Share our website and help us continue to fund exciting new research.
2025 Awardees
Climate Disasters and Impacts on Pregnancy Outcomes
This study aims to explore the effects of displacement, evacuation, and exposure to environmental hazards due to disasters on pregnancy and birth outcomes, using data from PeriBank, a repository of prenatal and birth outcomes. The research focuses on the impact of Hurricane Harvey on pregnant women in Houston, TX, and aims to fill gaps in understanding the role of environmental contaminants and displacement in adverse pregnancy outcomes. The findings are expected to inform disaster preparedness and response strategies, particularly for pregnant women and infants, and contribute to equitable disaster prevention and recovery efforts.
| Community Health Sciences
Shaping the Safety Net: How Community Characteristics and Business Pressures Influence where Community Health Centers Choose to Grow
The proposed project aims to understand the factors influencing the geographic expansion of Community Health Centers (CHCs) in the U.S., focusing on community-level factors and clinic-level financial pressures. Using 15 years of data, the study will model CHC location decisions and hypothesizes that CHCs are more likely to expand in areas with higher Medicaid coverage. The findings will inform strategies to ensure equitable access to healthcare and support future research on the impacts of CHC growth patterns on clinical performance and care for high-risk patients.
| Health Policy and Administration
Professional role identities: An unexplored barrier to alcohol-related services in primary care?
The proposed project aims to address the under-detection and intervention of unhealthy use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) in primary care by investigating whether providing AOD-related care is influenced by primary care physicians’ role identities. It will develop and test a survey to explore if physicians’ self-efficacy towards and perceived importance of providing AOD-related services (screening, brief intervention, referral to specialty treatment, and medications for alcohol and opioid use disorder) are related to professional identification and professional advice networks. The pilot project will support future applications to develop and test novel implementation processes for AOD-related care that modify or better align with physician role identities.
| Health Policy and Administration
Linking residential histories to food environments: the role of cumulative geospatial food access on colon cancer subtypes, survival, and disparities
This proposal aims to investigate how residential proximity to healthy and unhealthy food sources impacts colon cancer progression and survival. Building on prior work, the study will link residential histories of approximately 60,000 cancer patients to food outlet data, examining long-term food environments in relation to cancer outcomes. The project will generate preliminary data to support larger grant proposals and explore the role of food access in colorectal cancer etiology and survival, with a focus on addressing Black-White survival disparities. The findings will inform future research and policy decisions.
Cofunded by CACHET
| Epidemiology and Biostatistics
COllecting Sexual orientation/gender identity in Midlife and Older adults Study (COSMOS)
This proposal aims to understand the factors that increase sexual and gender minority (SGM) identity disclosure to health institutions and clinicians, particularly among midlife and older adults. It will compare SOGI data collection rates at UI Health-Mile Square Health Center to national benchmarks, identify characteristics associated with increased SOGI data collection, and link SGM competency data to National Provider Identifier data. The findings will inform policies and interventions to improve health outcomes for midlife and older SGM adults.
| Health Policy and Administration