A project led by South Dakota State University’s Bonny Specker was one of three projects selected for funding by the National Institutes of Health as part of the Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health and its pilot grants program.
The CRCAIH’s pilot grant program, now in its third year, was created to fund cutting-edge transdisciplinary research addressing health disparities experienced by American Indians in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.
Sanford Research and a broad base of partners in 2012 received a $13.5 million grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Disparities to create the CRCAIH. The research center has now supported a total of 13 pilot grant awards across the region to explore how social determinants of health impact American Indians.
“The comprehensive review process to select each project was completed by an external panel that examined the relevance of the research to American Indian health, among other criteria,†said Amy Elliott, principal investigator for the CRCAIH and executive director and senior scientist for Sanford Research’s Community & Population Health Sciences.
Specker is working on a project titled Pregnancy Health Survey for Parents of Newborns on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation. Sara DeCoteau of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, Human Services/Division of Health Services, is working with Specker.
The pilot projects were selected based on purpose, priorities and significance; scientific approach; innovation and potential for future funding; investigators and environment; and collaborative relationships.
