CHAIRS-C

Pilot Grants

We are pleased to announce the availability of pilot grants through the CHAIRS-C planning grant. The goal of this pilot program is to support preliminary studies that investigate significant and innovative research questions related to the CHAIRS-C theme: heat or other extreme weather events’ effects on health across the adult lifespan, with a focus on older adults.

We call your attention to the following key resources which may be helpful in building your proposal. If you want to learn more about these key resources for your pilot proposal, please reply to our Grant Project Launcher.

• Through the CHAIRS-C Research Project, we have linked national Medicare health claims with temperature, humidity, and air pollution data, which is available for analysis.
• Spatial data resources are available through Spatial Structures in Social Science (S4) and the Brown University GeoSpatial Data Center.
• We have built relationships with community partners who are ready to participate in research.

We anticipate funding 2-4 pilot projects with budgets in 2026 and 2027.

• Proposals from eligible researchers in a single academic department: budget limit $50,000
• Proposals from eligible researchers in 2 or more academic departments: budget limit $75,000
• Proposals that incorporate a community partner can request an additional $25,000

Submission Deadlines:

• Letter of Intent due October 27, 2025
• Proposals due Monday, January 9, 2026

Eligibility and review criteria:

• Faculty and research staff who are eligible to serve as PI of external grants at Brown University
• Projects should lay the foundation for new research, or extend an existing project to include a focus on aging and older adults.
• It should be feasible to complete the project within 12 months of the start of the award.
• Preference will be given to projects that: a) are interdisciplinary and solutions-oriented; b) meaningfully include a community partner; c) involve at least one early-stage investigator.

LOIs should include:

• Researcher names
• Departmental affiliations of researchers
• Community partner organization (where applicable)
• Title of project
• A two to three sentence description of your research project.

Proposals should include:

• Description of proposed research: Aims, Significance, Approach, and how the findings would contribute to a competitive proposal for external funding (3 pages max).
• Description of how the proposed activity is distinct from ongoing research (½ page max).
• Timeline for the pilot work and the external grant submission, and specific targeted external funding source(s) (½ page max).
• Budgets may include up to 10% (total) salary support for those faculty who are expected to cover at least 30% of their salaries through research grants. Budgets may also include equipment and supplies related to data collection, support for research staff and community partners, and travel costs to present project findings at a national scientific conference.
• NIH Biosketches of all investigators involved in the research.

To submit your LOI or proposal, or if you have any questions, please contact:
Jennifer Tidey | SPH Associate Dean for Research | e: Jennifer_Tidey@brown.edu

The review process:

Review criteria will be the same as those used to review NIH grants, with particular attention to the project’s alignment with the themes and goals of CHAIRS-C. Release of funds will be contingent upon IRB approval of the project, if applicable. Project leads will be expected to provide a brief semi-annual progress report to the CHAIRS-C Core Leads, present their findings to the External Advisory Committee, and to submit at least one peer-reviewed publication and one grant application directly related to the project within 2 years of completion.