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Program Description: In recent years, the National Endowment for the Arts' research agenda has focused on yielding new knowledge about the value and impact of the arts. Through the National Endowment for the Arts Research Labs (NEA Research Labs), we seek to extend this agenda and its impact by cultivating a series of transdisciplinary research partnerships, grounded in the social and behavioral sciences, to produce and report empirical insights about the arts for the benefit of arts and non-arts sectors alike. Each NEA Research Lab will define its own research agenda, conduct a research program to implement that agenda, and prepare reports that will contribute substantively to a wider understanding of one of three areas of special interest to the National Endowment for the Arts: 1. The Arts, Health, and Social/Emotional Well-Being a. Therapeutic Approaches and Benefits b. Non-Therapeutic Approaches and Benefits 2. The Arts, Creativity, Cognition, and Learning 3. The Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation We anticipate that a sustained engagement with these topic areas, and with the corresponding research questions we frame below, will have distinctive benefits not only for the arts community, but also for sectors such as healthcare, education, and business or management.

India is home to the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in the world. There are an estimated 2.09 million people living with HIV. The Government of India (GoI) has undertaken a robust scale up of its antiretroviral treatment (ART) program, starting from eight ART centers in 2004 to over 420 centers now in 2014. Currently, over 750,000 PLWH are on ART out of 1.1 million eligible for treatment. Despite scale up success, several challenges remain for the ART program to achieve the expansion it envisages over the next five years. These include human capacity issues, loss of patients from detection to enrollment in HIV care, and late HIV detection and retention. At every stage, over 200,000 patients are lost from testing to enrollment in care, to retention in care and then to treatment. Although progress has been made in the implementation of the HIV-TB program, there are several gaps that need to be addressed. The linkages between HIV/AIDS and the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) are suboptimal, particularly in northern states due to limited capacity and infrastructure. Only 61% (2014) of TB patients were screened for HIV and knew their HIV status in the last one year. Of those identified as HIV positive, 85% were linked to ART. However, the concern is that the referral from HIV testing and care facilities to RNTCP is quite low.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support mechanistic clinical studies aimed at understanding the impact of arts-based approaches in palliative care for symptom management. This FOA is intended to support mechanistic clinical studies to provide an evidence base for the use of the arts in palliative care for symptom management. The objective is to understand the biological, physiological, neurological, psychological, and/or sociological mechanisms by which the arts exert their effects on symptom management during and throughout the palliative care continuum. The goal is for the research supported under this FOA to develop an evidence-base that could be used as a basis for the uptake of arts-based therapies in palliative care settings, among individuals across the lifespan, with a wide variety of serious chronic conditions and their accompanying symptoms. This FOA is not intended to determine efficacy or the comparative effectiveness of interventions, or to assess interventions designed to treat the underlying cause of a particular disease state.

Priority will be given to applications that show capacity to design and implement quasi-experimental or experimental studies (using primary and/or secondary data sources) with theory-driven research questions and methodologies that will yield important information about the impact of the arts within the selected topic area. Competitive applications will take into account any extant research that serves as a basis for a theoretical framework and helps to motivate the proposed project. We also welcome novel and promising research approaches, such as rigorous analyses of organizational or social networks and/or social media data. In addition, we are interested in translational research that moves scientific evidence toward the development, testing, and standardization of new arts-related programs, practices, models, or tools that can be used easily by other practitioners and researchers.

The Oakland-based Kenneth Rainin Foundation is committed to change through inquiry, creativity, and compassion and works to enhance quality of life by championing the arts, promoting early childhood literacy, and supporting research on chronic diseases. In support of this mission, the foundation is accepting applications for its Open Spaces Program. Through the program, grants ranging between $50,000 and $200,000 over twenty-four months will be awarded to nonprofits prepared to partner with artists in the Bay Area to create temporary, place-based art projects that are responsive to issues relevant to communities in San Francisco and Oakland. The program is intended to strengthen the Bay Area as a center for arts experimentation and aims to support collaborations across various disciplines, diverse media, and technology; projects taking place outdoors at sites accessible by public transportation; and projects that compensate artists at a significant level.

The Cooperative Agreement resulting from this Program Solicitation can start no earlier than July 1, 2020, and may extend for up to 18 months. An organization may submit only one proposal under this program solicitation. Program Description The Sound Health program seeks to expand public understanding of the connections between music and wellness: how music is processed by the brain, how music can impact development and learning, and the therapeutic use of music for specific health conditions. Launched in 2016, Sound Health is a partnership between the National Institutes of Health ("NIH") and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ("Kennedy Center"), in association with the National Endowment for the Arts ("Arts Endowment") (individually known as "Partner" and collectively known as "the Partnership").

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages research to understand and promote adherence to antiretroviral (ARV) regimens for HIV treatment and prevention. Studies addressing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral therapy (ART) are the foci of this FOA. The overarching emphasis is on the development of feasible interventions to improve and sustain PrEP or ART adherence which could be rapidly implemented in clinical, community, and policy environments to improve HIV treatment and prevention outcomes.  

Cameroon is one of the 30 countries with the highest burden of TB/HIV co-infection worldwide. Only 54% of TB cases were notified in 2016 and 5.5% were children. TB treatment coverage was 55% and treatment success 84%.Despite implementation of TB and HIV strategic plans, TB case finding, diagnosis, and management remain suboptimal. TB/HIV co-infection remains high, Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) implementation is limited, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) services are not fully integrated in TB clinics. Human resource capacity is limited, and there are continued challenges with stock management.Cameroon adheres to the Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO Strategy to END TB. This NOFO will support development of models to improve screening, case identification, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of TB among people living with HIV (PLHIV). It will also strengthen HIV testing, ART initiation, clinical monitoring, and care for TB clients, and strengthen health systems by building monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and infection control (IC) capacity. These interventions will strengthen TB/HIV services and improve capacity for an effective TB/HIV response in Cameroon.

This NOFO will support achievement of national targets for 2018 antiretroviral therapy (ART) scale-up towards the UNAIDS Fast Track Targets in Ukraine. The recipient will implement innovative and effective recruitment and case management models for persons who inject drugs (PWID) and men who have sex with men (MSM) at the community level. These innovative changes will increase uptake of HIV community based testing and increase ART initiation for these populations. The recipient will pilot risk network-based testing using point-of-care recency assays to link recently infected PWID to care. The project will focus on the six regions with the highest HIV burden (Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, government controlled areas (GCA) of Donetsk, Kyiv City, and Kherson) and continue to work in six additional medium burden oblasts (Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kirovohrad, and Kyiv). The recipient will also increase the capacity of the Government of Ukraine’s Center for Public Health (CPH) and regional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) centers specialists to conduct data analysis using statistical software and build institutional capacity to conduct economic evaluations of HIV interventions. Illustrative strategic information (SI) activities include development of trainings to support the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the newly established CPH in using statistical software, routine analysis of surveillance data, study design, and research protocol development.

This NOFO will support achievement of national targets for 2018 antiretroviral therapy (ART) scale-up towards the UNAIDS Fast Track Targets in Ukraine. The recipient will implement innovative and effective recruitment and case management models for persons who inject drugs (PWID) and men who have sex with men (MSM) at the community level. These innovative changes will increase uptake of HIV community based testing and increase ART initiation for these populations. The recipient will pilot risk network-based testing using point-of-care recency assays to link recently infected PWID to care. The project will focus on the six regions with the highest HIV burden (Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, government controlled areas (GCA) of Donetsk, Kyiv City, and Kherson) and continue to work in six additional medium burden oblasts (Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kirovohrad, and Kyiv). The recipient will also increase the capacity of the Government of Ukraine’s Center for Public Health (CPH) and regional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) centers specialists to conduct data analysis using statistical software and build institutional capacity to conduct economic evaluations of HIV interventions. Illustrative strategic information (SI) activities include development of trainings to support the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the newly established CPH in using statistical software, routine analysis of surveillance data, study design, and research protocol development.

According to the foundation, society must do more to address the harm done to people with low incomes - including systemic racial injustice and normalized acts of exclusion - and the disinvestment in the communities in which they live. Only then can it recognize and deploy creative placemaking as a necessary dimension of the strategies needed to create the conditions by which people thrive and communities are supported. To that end, the foundation seeks to invest in pre-conditions for long-term change such as resident empowerment and agency, social cohesion, narrative change, and equitable capital improvements. The foundation will support arts and community development organizations and projects with the potential to advance innovative and creative approaches to community development and inclusionary practices and policies. Projects receiving priority include those that position arts, culture, and community-engaged design as a central element of community development and planning; adopt an explicit equity lens that seeks to dismantle structural inequities; empower residents with low incomes to advocate for and lead change in their community; take an asset-based approach when working in historically marginalized communities; promote models of distributed leadership and wealth; reinforce collaborations and equal partnerships across multiple sectors; advance just practices and principles in the creative placemaking field; and create career pathways and learning opportunities for NextGen creative placemaking leaders of color.

The Pacific Life Foundation accepts grant proposals from agencies seeking funds for programs and projects in the areas of health and human services; education; arts and culture; and civic, community, and environment.

Indiana University's African Studies Program invites applications for a short-term residency to conduct research in IU's Libraries/African Studies Collections. Indiana University's African Studies Collection ranks among the top tier of such collections in the U.S. It comprises more than 150,000 volumes of monographs and over 700 serial subscriptions as well as materials in other formats (e.g. posters, slides, film/video, audio tapes, etc). The focus of the collection is on the humanities and social sciences, supporting a wide range of students and faculty in such departments as history, anthropology, fine arts, theatre & drama, literature, folklore, ethnomusicology, communication and culture, linguistics, religious studies, education, political science, business, economics, journalism, and applied health science. This residency is intended for faculty members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or at other U.S. colleges / universities with limited Africa collections, to conduct research in Indiana University's libraries and special collections in support of curriculum development or publications. The successful applicant will receive an award that covers domestic travel, accommodations in Bloomington, and a modest per diem for up to two weeks of research. The award will cover expenses up to a maximum of $2,000 and must be used before August 01, 2014. The recipient is expected to reside in Bloomington during the period of her/his award.

DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals of interest to the Defense Sciences Office. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science and technology. Specifically excluded is research that results primarily in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of the art.

This initiative will support research projects that implement and test comprehensive service approaches to engage and retain youth and young adults (age 12 - 25 years) from health disparity populations in the HIV Treatment Cascade, which includes diagnosis, linkage to care, engagement in care, retention in care, initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART), and achievement of viral suppression.   

The purpose of this FOA is to solicit applications from foreign institutions in African countries to provide an Administrative Coordinating Center for the H3Africa Consortium.  H3Africa research projects employ state of the art genomics approaches to study genetic and environmental contributors to specific health condition(s) or disease(s) relevant to African populations. The H3Africa Administrative Coordinating Center will provide the organizational framework for the management, direction, and overall coordination of all common H3Africa activities (i.e. Consortium activities). 

This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), supported by funds from the NIH Common Fund (Common Fund) and participating NIH Institute(s) and Center(s), invites applications from foreign Institutions in African countries.  The purpose of this FOA is to call for applications for investigator-initiated H3Africa Research Projects.  An H3Africa Research Project is a discrete, specified, circumscribed research project, conducted by a single investigator or multiple investigators, that employs state-of-the-art genomics approaches and relates to the study of genetic and/or environmental contributors to specific health condition(s) or disease(s) relevant to African populations.  

This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), supported by funds from the NIH Common Fund (Common Fund) and participating NIH Institute(s) and Center(s), invites applications from foreign Institutions in African countries to submit applications for H3Africa Collaborative Centers.  These awards will support 3-5 collaborating research projects at three or more African institutions working together as a partnership to accomplish more than each project could accomplish on its own.  An H3Africa Collaborative Center should employ state of the art genomics approaches to study genetic and environmental contributors to specific health condition(s) or disease(s) relevant to African populations.

This NIH Common Fund initiative will establish national service centers to increase research capacity for molecular structure determination by high resolution cryoelectron microscopy (cryoEM).  The centers will address Common Fund infrastructure and workforce goals for cryoEM by providing access to state-of-the-art equipment, technical support, and cross-training for the production and analysis of high-resolution data.  The centers will offer equal-opportunity nationwide access to services through an open application process.

To analyze and communicate complex scientific topics is more than just a profession - it is an art.  Medical science journalism is no exception. Accordingly, launching a career as science journalist proves to be an arduous endeavor. To help recognize emerging medical science journalists, Germany's most read medical journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the European Union of Science Journalists' Associations (EUSJA), and the World Health Summit (WHS) will grant the "Next Generation of Science Journalists" Award for the second time. The top selected five young professionals will be invited to participate in the WHS 2013 and experience a unique international networking and learning opportunity. This provides a career head-start as the annual World Health Summit attracts some 1000 high-ranking participants from all health-related sectors - from Nobel Prize laureates to CEOs and future leaders. Additionally, each winner will receive 500 Euro to recompense travel expenses.