NIMHD Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training (MHRT) T37 Program

Council Date: September 1, 2023

Objective

The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training (MHRT) T37 program supports research education and training opportunities in minority health and health disparities research for individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those underrepresented in biomedical, behavioral and social sciences, and clinical research.

The training programs will provide minority health and health disparities research opportunities for postdocs, residents, and trainees at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The awards support training at domestic academic institutions and at low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries.

Download the full concept paper

Description of Initiative

The goals of the MHRT-T37 program are to:

1. Complement and/or enhance the training of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those underrepresented within the biomedical, behavioral and social sciences, and clinical research workforce.
2. Help recruit individuals with diverse academic specialties or disciplines into minority health and health disparities research careers.

To accomplish these goals, creative educational activities are needed to provide minority health and health disparities research experiences for graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, residents, and fellows. Research experience can include clinical, translational, and/or population health research addressing diseases and conditions disproportionately impacting diverse populations experiencing health disparities.

The MHRT-T37 program is open to students across the United States, not just academic schools and institutions that received an NIH grant. Each site that receives a MHRT-T37 grant is required to include information about the program on their website, including an overview of the program, instructions on how to apply, requirements for acceptance, and staff to contact for more information.

Research Priorities: Areas of specific interest include, but are not limited to:

• Development and tailoring of screening, diagnostic, and therapeutic healthcare interventions that can contribute to improving racial and ethnic minority population health and reducing health disparities.
• Population-level gene-environment interaction studies.
• Behavioral, sociocultural, and environmental influences on disease risks and outcomes.
• Epidemiological, behavioral, social applied, and surveillance research to understand the impact of social determinants on community health and population well-being.
• Integrating the multiple determinants of health at the biological, behavioral, and contextual levels and their interactions.
• Informing and establishing community- and population-level and public health practices that improve health and reduce health disparities.
• Research in clinical settings that address access, quality, and cost of healthcare, patient safety, the impact of health information technology on coordination and quality of care, shared decision-making on patient satisfaction and health outcomes, and patient-clinician communication.
• Mechanisms through which genomic and epigenomic risk and protective factors influence the development of adverse health conditions.
• Effects of chronic stress on physiological functioning (i.e., allostatic load) across the life course.
• Mechanisms through which behavioral risk and protective factors influence the development of adverse health conditions.
• Individual-level strategies and interpersonal relationships for coping with adversity and chronic stress.
• Impact of discrimination on health behavior and strategies to ameliorate the effects.
• Mechanisms underlying health literacy and health numeracy and their influence on health-seeking or health-harming behaviors.

Page published Dec. 7, 2023