A new inter-institutional grant program brings together faculty at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Colorado State University to solve interdisciplinary public health problems.

The Office of the Dean at the Colorado School of Public Health and the Office of the Vice President for Research at CSU each contributed matching funds to establish a one-year program for research projects that involve at least one principal investigator from each university. These grants are designed as pilot grants, providing each selected team with $30,000 to fund seed projects that have the potential for larger, long-term research.

The first round of funding was recently awarded to three projects:

1. The first collaborative study seeks to determine whether rice bran, a byproduct of the rice milling process, can be used as a nutritional supplement for chronically malnourished mothers and infants in the rural Trifinio region of Guatemala.
2. The second inter-institutional study will investigate whether e-cigarette use by Colorado youth increases risk for flu infection by altering the function of macrophage immune cells.
3. The third study in the program will look at health outcomes of physical and social exposures in mixed-income public housing developments as part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhood Initiative.