Support for Innovation

A central aim of the CU Population Center is to provide early support for innovative, collaborative projects with the potential to substantially advance understanding in one of CUPC’s central research themes, all of which are related to the mission of the NICHD Population Dynamics Branch (PDB).

For this purpose, CUPC awards approximately $50,000 in Developmental Grants each year. This includes both larger Pilot Research Grants for amounts between $3,000 and $20,000 as well as Rapid Response Small Grants limited to $3,000.

Please contact Jason Boardman, Development Core Director, for any questions about these grants. Also, see below for a list of current and prior projects supported by the CUPC seed grant program.

In addition, the Institute of Behavioral Science also offers pilot grants for projects. Population-focus scholars with a project that does not fully fall within the scope of NICHD Population Dynamics Branch activities can apply for these funds instead.

Finally, the CU – Boulder Research and Innovation Office offers larger seed grants to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and which many of our affiliates have obtained to further develop extramural research grant applications and fully develop research projects.

Recent Intramural Grants Awarded to Affiliates

CUPC pilot grants (NICHD-funded):

Ryan Masters: “Life Expectancy Trends among U.S. States and Peer Countries, 1990-2020: Estimating the Impact of the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic on Widening Differences.” ($20,000).

Ryan Masters: “Life Expectancy Changes between 2020 and 2021 among 19 High-Income Countries and among U.S. Populations by Age, Sex, and Race/Ethnicity.” ($3,000).

Lori Hunter: “Environmental Extremes and Rural Health” ($15,000).

Adam Lippert: “Development of a Multi-Dimensional Measure of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Composition and Implications for Population Health Disparities.” ($11,000).

Leslie Root: “Quantifying the Impact of Abortion Restrictions in Colorado.” ($15,000).

Guofeng Cao: “Understanding Social Dynamics with Location-Based Social Media.” ($15,000).

Katie M. Combs: “Understanding the Effects of Swiftly Changing Abortion Access: The voice of Texas social service providers.” ($14,000).

Morteza Karimzadeh: “Forecasting COVID-19 in the Presence of Inconsistent Reporting.” ($13,000).

View projects supported in previous years.

Institute of Behavioral Science pilot grants:

Kyle Thomas and Eric Baumer: “Assessing the ‘Great Crime Decline’ Using Intergenerational Data.” ($13,844)

Beverly Kingston, Sarah Goodrum, Sabrina Arredondo Mattson, and Ruby Mendenhall: “Designing and Evaluating a Multicomponent Intervention to Heal Trauma, Prevent Violence, and Promote Resiliency and Wellness in Under-resourced Communities of Color.” ($15,000)

Courtney Welton-Mitchell and Leah James: “Mental Health and Psychosocial Support-integrated Climate Change Adaptation for Subsistence Farming Communities in Mizoram, India.” ($15,000)

Alexandra Siegel: “Can Online Exposure to Outgroups Improve Intergroup Attitudes and Behavior? Experimental Evidence from Israel.” ($14,600)

Other CU-wide grants:

IBS Director Lori Hunter received a CU Boulder Research and Innovation Office Seed Grant for her project “Socio-Environmental Data Integration for Population-Environment-Health Research: A South African Illustration.” This project, directly connected to CU Boulder’s Grand Challenge and in collaboration with Dr. Wayne Twine of the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) uses data from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System to examine the implications of different techniques to anonymize demographic data through geographic masking. The aim is to identify appropriate masking techniques allowing for less costly development of — and easier access to — the geographic coding necessary for facilitate population-environment research.