Research Seed Funding
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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.
Seed Funding Sparks Success
Dr. Leslie Williams received SPH seed funding to conduct a trial of a social network-based HIV testing intervention. She and her team had two key research goals: (1) link previously undiagnosed cases of HIV to treatment; and (2) reduce HIV-related stigma among groups of peers.
$6.9 million secured
Data from seed-funded project helped secure $3.2 million over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct a larger trial in 32 communities in South Africa. Additionally, Dr. Williams secured $3.7 million over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop interventions to reduce substance use-related stigma and prevent opioid overdose in Chicago, supported by data from seed-funded projects.
Pillars of Seed Funding
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Research Innovation
Seed funding is an important investment in research development. It creates opportunities for small studies that generate compelling data to form the basis of more extensive external funding proposals. Importantly, these small-scale opportunities are a significant proof point for established researchers to develop new or emerging research areas.
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Faculty Development
Seed funding is an instrumental opportunity for new or junior faculty to test and credential their research programs. Seed funding also helps recruit and retain the brightest scholars in public health research since it is recognized by faculty as a critical mechanism to support faculty research innovation.
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Student Engagement
Students gain experience in research, under the direction of a faculty investigator, as most seed awards include wages for research assistants to work on research projects. Some projects also offer opportunities for students to travel internationally or connect with local communities.
Seed Grants Interested in applying?
Currently Funded Projects
Machine Learning for Suicide Risk Among Youth of Color
This project will develop an equity‑centered machine learning approach to better identify suicide risk among youth of color, using a large and diverse UI Health electronic health record dataset. The work aims to improve early identification and prevention efforts while advancing fair and inclusive uses of data in public health practice.
Metagenomic Surveillance of Antimicrobial‑Resistant Pathogens in Hospital Wastewater and Surrounding Surface Water at Discharge Sites in Kathmandu, Nepal
This study will examine how hospital wastewater contributes to the spread of antimicrobial resistance in surrounding environments in Kathmandu, Nepal. By testing low‑cost genomic tools for real‑time monitoring, the project seeks to strengthen infection control, wastewater management, and antimicrobial resistance surveillance in low‑resource settings.
Understanding the Mental Health Paradox Among Older Black and White Adults
This project investigates racial differences in depressive symptoms and diagnosis among older adults to better understand a persistent mental health paradox. Using a life‑course approach, the study will examine how symptom patterns change across generations and how they relate to future diagnoses of major depressive disorder.
Professional Identity Trauma Scale: Development and Psychometric Evaluation in Academic Public Health Faculty
Previously Funded Projects
Project Titles and Investigators
Machine learning for suicide risk among youth of color
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Abhery Das, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Professional Identity Trauma Scale: Development and Psychometric Evaluation in Academic Public Health Faculty
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Tessa Bonney, PhD, MPH, CIH, Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences,
Co-I: Kathleen Rospenda (COM), Rachel Rauvola (DePaul), Rysazard Koziel (St Louis U)
Metagenomic Surveillance of Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens in Hospital Wastewater and Surrounding Surface Water at Discharge Sites in Kathmandu, Nepal
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Abhilasha Shrestha, PhD, MPH, Research Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Co-I: Andrew Trotter (COM), Rima Shrestha (COM-Peoria)
Understanding the Mental Health Paradox Among Older Black and White Adults
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Uchechi Mitchell, PhD, MSPH, Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences
Project Titles and Investigators
Climate Disasters and Impacts on Pregnancy Outcomes
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Ashley Hill, DrPH, Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Shaping the Safety Net: How Community Characteristics and Business Pressures Influence where Community Health Centers Choose to Grow
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Justin Markowski, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
COllecting Sexual orientation/gender identity in Midlife and Older adults Study (COSMOS)
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Nathaniel Tran, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Linking residential histories to food environments: the role of cumulative geospatial food access on colon cancer subtypes, survival, and disparities
Co-funded by the ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET) and the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Garth Rauscher, PhD, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Professional role identities: An unexplored barrier to alcohol-related services in primary care?
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Aryn Phillips, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Academic Year 2023-2024
Doula Enhanced Breastfeeding Community of Practice and Training Program Development & Pilot Test
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Larelle Bookhart, PhD, Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Surveillance of Work-Related Injuries in Chiropractors
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Dana Madigan, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Lee Friedman, PhD, Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Development of an mHealth Educational Intervention to Improve the Prevalence of Viral Suppression among Persons Living with HIV and Low Literacy in India
Funded by SPH Global Health
PI: Mark Dworkin, PhD, Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Special Call Awardees:
Software development of a sorting-based mixed data generation routine for applied researchers and practitioners
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Hakan Demirtas
Addressing uncertainties due to data-linkage misalignment and exposure prediction models: a Bayesian framework
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Honghyok Kim
A study examining policy frameworks for women’s health in St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN) and patient perceptions and experience with care
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Fanta Waterman
Academic Year 2022-2023
Development of multimodal methods for studies of prenatal stress and offspring iron status in humans and mice
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Rebecca Campbell, PhD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Irina Buhimschi, MD, Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Academic-Community Capacity-building for Community-Level Environmental Incident and Air Quality Data Collection in Chicago Environmental Justice Network (CEJN) Communities
Co-funded by the ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET) and the SPH Policy, Practice and Prevention Research Center (P3RC)
PI: Jeni Hebert-Beirne, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences
Co-PI: Serap Erdal, PhD, Associate Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
A triple climate-change threat: modifications of associations between heat waves and mortality by simultaneous exposure to PM2.5 and O3 and sociodemographic inequalities in a U.S. population
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Honghyok Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
The relationship between multi-jurisdictional employment policies and food insecurity in six U.S. cities
Funded by the SPH Policy, Practice and Prevention Research Center (P3RC)
PI: Elizabeth Porter, JD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Vanessa Oddo, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology and Nutrition
Emily Stiehl, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Sage Kim, PhD, Associate Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Mobile monitoring of community air quality in southwest Chicago
Funded by the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Yuan Shao, PhD, CIH, CSP, Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Metals in Drinking Water Sources in Western Kenya
Funded by SPH Global Health
PI: Mehdi Amouei Torkmahalleh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Sam Dorevitch, MD, MPH, Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
PFAS contamination of anchovies and anchovy consumers
Co-funded by the ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET) and the SPH Dean’s Office, Office of Research Services
PI: Mary Turyk, MPH, PhD, Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Susan Buchanan, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Kathryn Nagy, PhD, Professor and Dept Head, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Academic Year 2021-2022
State-driven innovation to improve equitable access of federal nutrition support programs: A mixed methods action research study
PI: Yuka Asada, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Understanding the role of the social and physical environments on cancer care and outcomes through linkage to residential histories
PI: Garth Rauscher, PhD, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Adaptation and Implementation of a Responsive Parenting Intervention for Latinx Families in Chicago
PI: Jessica Rothstein, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Novel EHR-Based Computational Methods for Disease Subtyping and Risk Prediction
PI: Jiehuan Sun, PhD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Medicare Health Plan Choice, Inertia, and Mortality Effects
PI: Jennifer Kwok, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Academic Year 2020-2021
Tomographic Reconstruction of Spatial Aerosol Distribution using Multispectral Light Extinction Measurement – A Chamber Study
PI: Yuan Shao, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health
Epidemiology of Neonatal Iron Status in Twin Pregnancy
PI: Rebecca Campbell, PhD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
A Novel Approach to Bacterial Sample Preservation and Transportation at Ambient Temperature
PI: Abhilasha Shrestha, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Caminos a Seguridad: Creating Culturally-Tailored Safety Planning “Pathways” for Chicago’s Latinas in a Pandemic
PI: Alisa Velonis, PhD, Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Older Awards
Academic Year 2019-2020
Joint and Two-Stage Prognostic Models in Pain Trajectory Research
PI: Saria S. Awadalla, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biostatistics
Out-of-pocket costs and coverage for chronic diseases in high-deductible health plans
PI: Betsy Cliff, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
PrEP in Practice: Analyzing PrEP Persistence and the Relationship Between PrEP Initiation and HIV Infections
PI: Marcus Dillender, PhD, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
An Expanded Social Network Approach to Locating People who Use Drugs and Recently Infected and/or Undiagnosed Positive Cases for HIV
PI: Leslie D. Williams, PhD, Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Academic Year 2018-2019
Addressing Suicidal Risk in Harm Reduction Services for People Who Inject Drugs
PI: Dr. Mary E. Mackesy-Amiti, Research Associate Professor, Community Outreach Intervention Projects
Understanding Geographic Variation in Medicare: Theory and Evidence
PI: Dr. Pierre Thomas Leger, Associate Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Intergenerational transmission of neighborhood disadvantage and its effects on cancer risk
PI: Dr. Sage Kim, Associate Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Characterization and Feasibility of Novel Instrument for Real-Time Respirator Fit
PI: Dr. Margaret Sietsema, Research Assistant Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Academic Year 2017-2018
Characterization of Agricultural Herbicide Exposures In Reproductive Age Women
PI: Kirsten Almberg, Research Assistant Professor, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Women’s Health Care at the Well-Baby Visit: An Integrated Approach to Women’s Mental and Reproductive Health Needs in the Postpartum Period
PI: Arden Handler, Professor, Community Health Sciences
The Effect of Hospital/Physician Integration on Health Care Prices, Insurance Quality, and Patient Outcomes
PI: Nicholas Tilipman, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration
Academic Year 2016-2017
Feasibility of Recruiting Suburban Opioid Users for Studies on HCV Prevention
PI: Mary E. Mackesy-Amiti, PhD, Research Associate Professor, Community Outreach Intervention Projects
Identifying Optimal Strategies to Achieve Future Healthy People Objectives: Comparative Economic Analyses of Two Approaches to Promote Guideline-Concordant Breast Screening Among Latinas
PI: Yamile Molina, PhD, Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences, Faculty Affiliate | Center for Research on Women and Gender | Member, Cancer Center
Academic Year 2015-2016
Novel Multiple Imputation Methods for Incomplete Intensive Longitudinal Data
PI: Hakan Demirtas, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Adaptation of an HIV/STI Prevention Intervention for 11-13 year old African-American Girls and their Female Caregivers
PI: Anna Hotton, PhD, Visiting Research Assistant Professor, Community Outreach Intervention Projects
The Relationship of Manganese Exposure with Pulmonary Function and School Performance
PI: Victoria Persky, MD, Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Co-PI: Maria Argos, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Academic Year 2014-2015
Social Geography of Risk among People Who Inject Drugs Pilot Study
PI: Mary Ellen Mackesy-Amiti, PhD, Research Associate Professor, Community Outreach Intervention Projects
Implementation of a State Medicaid Policy Initiative to Promote Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) Access during the Delivery Hospitalization: A Study of Women’s Perspectives
PI: Kristin Rankin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Academic Year 2013-2014
Evaluation of environmental exposures in Chicago youth with metabolic dysfunction
PI: Maria Argos, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Co-PI: Mary Turyk, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Long Term Care Policies and Caregiving: Time Use in Japan and the United States
PI: Naoko Muramatsu, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Community Health Sciences; Fellow, Institute for Health Policy and Research