Supplemental Grants for Research Goes Red Awardees

At the American Heart Association, equity and science are at the center of everything we do.

Medical care alone is insufficient to ensure better health and well-being.¹ Understanding the role of factors such as social determinants of health, social risk factors, and health-related social needs is a crucial component of establishing equitable health for all.

Research has begun to explore the role of social determinants of health, social risk factors, and health-related social needs on cardiovascular health and well-being. Early studies have often been limited by small sample sizes and underrepresentation of ethnic and racial groups, women, and LGBTQ communities.

The American Heart Association is looking to provide supplemental funding to current Research Goes Red (RGR) grantees who will continue to recruit populations at risk of hypertension including, but not limited to, young Black and/or Hispanic women, and evaluate the role of need-specific interventions on blood pressure control.

Advancing women’s health through Research Goes Red

The American Heart Association and Verily’s Project Baseline joined forces to launch Research Goes Red, an initiative focused on improving women’s health. Research Goes Red is a unique online participant-centric registry. Over 23,000 women have already joined Research Goes Red, connecting women in the United States with scientists and clinicians to involve more women in research.

Recruited participants must join the Research Goes Red Registry to be eligible for the proposed study.

¹Goff DC Jr, Lloyd-Jones DM, Bennett G, et al.; American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. 2013 ACC/AHA guideline on the assessment of cardiovascular risk: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2014;129(25)(suppl 2):S49-S73.

The purpose of this Request for Proposals is to provide supplemental funding to Research Goes Red awardees that have shown extraordinary promise in recruiting women in underrepresented communities with a focus on hypertension.
 
Proposals should be focused on hypertension and health-related social needs in women from underrepresented communities, for example: housing instability, food insecurity, transportation problems, interpersonal safety, financial strain, employment, family and community support, education, physical activity, substance use, mental health, and disabilities. 

Examples of topics that would be responsive to this RFP include:

1. continuing to collect health data, survey data and social determinants of health (SDOH) data that will improve blood pressure in women in underrepresented communities.
2. further assess the role of health-related social needs on blood pressure 
3. further assess the role of adverse pregnancy outcomes on blood pressure
4. further assess the role of health literacy on blood pressure

We are looking for researchers that currently hold an award using the Research Goes Red Registry and are focused on hypertension and social determinants of health in women in underrepresented communities.

• Each application must ensure that new study participants recruited into your study be new or current members of the Research Goes Red Registry.

• Each application must leverage the American Heart Association’s Precision Medicine Platform to harmonize, analyze, and interpret data. Self-reported data from consenting participants in Research Goes Red is de-identified, standardized and harmonized and uploaded into the Precision Medicine Platform on a regular basis, along with data documentation for use by approved researchers.

*Note: research study data is not routinely shared with approved researchers in the public domain until after publication. However, as the Principal Investigator of this funded research study, you will have a private secure workspace that is equipped with your research study data and any additional approved data from the broader Research Goes Red cohort.  

**All applications are highly encouraged to include a data scientist with coding experience as a team member.

Before you apply

Every applicant must be an American Heart Association professional member.

• Join or renew when preparing an application in Proposal Central, online or by phone at 1-888-242-2453 or 972-349-5803.
• Membership/Partnership processing takes 3 to 5 days; do not wait until the application deadline to renew or join.  

Preference will be given to applicant organizations that are institutes of higher education, public entities, or nonprofits that are tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or Type III supporting organizations. Other types of nonprofit and for-profit organizations are also eligible to apply. The American Heart Association may require additional documentation. 
 
Organizations that are currently funded through other American Heart Association funding mechanisms can apply. 
 
Organizations can submit multiple proposals.

Full proposals for applicants must be submitted by Thursday, February 15, 2024

CHECKLIST

A.  Research Plan up to 6 pages (12-point font, single space, 1-inch margins on all sides) that includes:

1. Specific Aims
   • Provide a clear, concise summary of the aims of the proposed work
   • State the hypothesis to be tested.
   • State how the work will significantly add to the current work.
2. Background and Significance
3. Preliminary Studies
4. Research Design and Methods
5. Expected outcomes and deliverables, a timeline, and project success milestones. Discuss the potential difficulties and limitations of the proposed procedures and alternative approaches to achieve the aims. 

• Salary and fringe benefits of the project lead, collaborating investigators, and other participating research staff or faculty.
• Project-related expenses, such as salaries of technical personnel essential to the conduct of the project, travel, and publication costs in accordance with institutional and American Heart Association policies. Please note that the American Heart Association does not fund the costs of program implementation or operations beyond what is established in an approved budget.
• Maximum of 10% institutional indirect costs may be claimed on the award.
• The awardee will be responsible for overseeing the total budget for the grant. If awarded, the project lead and the institution assume an obligation to expend grant funds for the research purposes set forth in the application and in accordance with all regulations and policies governing the grant programs of the American Heart Association.

For all other required items not listed, please refer to sections displayed in your Proposal Central application. (e.g.: funding overlap, Assurances, Research Classifications, etc.)

PEER REVIEW CRITERIA

1. Proposed Project

• Are the conceptual framework, design, methods, and analyses adequately developed, well-integrated, well-reasoned, feasible (as determined by preliminary data), and appropriate to the aims of the proposal?
• How does the proposed work significantly add to the work on-going by the applicant in initial RGR funding award? 
  
   

2. Significance

• Does this study move the field of research on social determinants of health (SDOH) and hypertension in women from underrepresented communities?
• If the aims of the application are achieved, how will scientific knowledge or clinical practice be advanced?
• What will be the effect of these studies on the concepts, methods and technologies that drive this field?

AWARD DURATION & AMOUNT

• Two-year award from date of funding. Up to $150,000 per year, for a total of $300,000 (including 10% indirect costs). 
• The American Heart Association reserves the right to determine the final number of awardees.
• An additional Amazon Web Services (AWS) service credit (up to $50,000) for use of the American Heart Association Precision Medicine Platform may be provided for computational time, use of AWS tools and infrastructure, and storage. Credit amount will be determined based on estimated need over duration of the grant.

It is required that any data analysis for your project be conducted via the American Heart Association’s Precision Medicine Platform, powered by Amazon Web Services. Our intent is to help applicants gain confidence leveraging cloud computing for applications and projects.  

The Precision Medicine Platform provides you with a secure cloud computing workspace for you to use for the application and during the term of the award that allows researchers to code in various languages, including R and Python, and to use statistical software including but not limited to SAS and R studio. The most up-to-date machine learning and artificial intelligence software available from Amazon Web Services is also included. Researchers are also able to install their own tools.

The American Heart Association asks that the grantees also accelerate collaboration through the sharing of data and code as well as the coordination for interoperability of data to facilitate findability and sustainability. The American Heart Association fully supports the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) guiding principles of data stewardship.  The Precision Medicine Platform helps to support this principle by also serving as a data marketplace and enables you to share your data and make it available to other researchers.  

The Platform is HIPAA and FedRAMP compliant. Learn more about the Platform’s Security Information.

To learn more about the Precision Medicine Platform:

• Overview
• Full list of available analytical tools 

Final progress report

Awardees must submit a final progress report progress. Progress reports may take the form of a required written report in addition to video conferencing, phone calls, and/or face-to-face visits. Reporting will be focused on achievement of stated milestones as indicated in the project timeline. The American Heart Association reserves the right to request additional updates, site visits, or reporting.

Public access

The American Heart Association’s public access policy requires that all journal articles resulting from American Heart Association funding be made freely available in PubMed Central and attributed to a specific American Heart Association award within 12 months of publication. It is the responsibility of the awardee to ensure journal articles are deposited into PubMed Central.

Additional Requirements

• Any inventions, intellectual property, and patents resulting from this funding are governed by the AHA’s Patent, Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Policy.

• The applicant/awardee and institution are responsible for compliance with all AHA research award policies and guidelines for the duration of any awards they may receive.

• Visit the Research Programs Awards Policies page for more information on this topic: American Heart Association Policies Governing All Research Awards