The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) works to build a Culture of Health that ensures everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthy by removing obstacles such as poverty and discrimination, providing access to quality education, good jobs with fair pay, affordable housing, safe environments, and effective health care. The historical and contemporary manifestations of systemic racism and injustice play powerful roles in sustaining obstacles to health, transmitting them across generations, and making them resistant to remedies. Social determinants of health such as those related to housing instability, food insecurity, social isolation, financial strain, and interpersonal violence remain dominant causes of preventable disease and injury.
Systems for Action (S4A) is a signature research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that helps to build the evidence base for a Culture of Health by rigorously testing new ways of connecting the nation’s fragmented medical, social, and public health systems. New strategies and tools are needed to help medical, social, and public health systems work together to dismantle structural racism and improve health and well-being for all.
S4A studies a variety of novel approaches for aligning systems, using rigorous scientific methods to determine their impact on health and health equity. This 2022 call for proposals (CFP) will provide funding for a new cohort of research studies to produce new, actionable evidence about how to help medical, social, and public health systems collaborate to address structural barriers to health and health equity, including racism and the social conditions that impact health.
The full proposal application deadline for both award categories is October 5, 2022 (3pm ET). Applicants must read the following descriptions to determine which award category (Development Studies or Impact Studies) they will apply for, and apply only to that specific award category.
Developmental Studies: This award will support pilot testing of the proposed systems alignment approach in order to examine its feasibility and acceptability for actors in the relevant medical, social, and public health systems, and its potential to dismantle forms of structural racism and inequity embedded within these systems. This award category is for applicants who have not previously completed a pilot study of their proposed systems alignment approach and do not yet have preliminary evidence about the feasibility of implementing the approach and the feasibility of related research strategies. The pilot studies supported by this award should also test the feasibility of key research strategies to be used, including issues related to participant recruitment and retention, data exchange and linkage, measurement strategies, and random assignment or other statistical control methods if applicable. This award will provide up to $100,000 in total funding to be used over a 12-month period to pilot test the proposed system alignment approach. After completing a successful pilot study under this award category, applicants will be well-positioned to pursue subsequent studies of the impact of their proposed system alignment approach, either by applying to a future call for S4A Impact Studies or by applying to other research funding opportunities.
This award will support studies that examine the impact of the proposed system alignment strategy on relevant measures of health and health equity, with a focus on understanding the strategy’s success or failure in dismantling forms of structural racism and inequity embedded within systems. This award will provide up to $500,000 in total funding to be used over a 36-month period to study the impact of the proposed system alignment approach on relevant measures of health and health equity. This award category is open only to applicants who have completed a pilot study of their proposed system alignment approach and can provide results that confirm the feasibility of the approach and its acceptability to key actors within the relevant medical, social, and public health systems. Applicants must provide documentation of pilot test results as part of their application, which may include a publication, report, working paper, or research brief. If the pilot test study was completed by an organization other than the applicant organization or a partnering organization, applicants must explain how their organization will ensure that it has the necessary knowledge, experience, community relationships, and trust to replicate the results of the pilot test.
Applicants must be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or non-functionally integrated Type III supporting organizations. The Foundation may require additional documentation from applicant organizations. Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories. Awards will be made to organizations, not to individuals. Multiorganizational consortia are encouraged to apply as long as a single eligible organization is designated as the primary applicant responsible for maintaining consortium agreements with other participating organizations. The primary applicant organization must have a demonstrated history of successfully managing funds awarded by foundation or government sources.
Applicants are eligible to apply for the Impact Study award category only if they have completed a pilot study of their proposed system alignment approach and can provide documentation about results that confirm the feasibility of the approach and its acceptability to key actors. Acceptable documentation of pilot test results must be submitted with the application, and may include a publication, report, working paper, or research brief. If the pilot test study was conducted by an organization other than the applicant organization or a partner organization, then the applicant must explain how their organization will ensure that it has the necessary knowledge, experience, community relationships, and trust to replicate the results of the pilot test.
Developmental Studies:
Impact Studies:
