Community Organization ENGAGE Award

The Mississippi IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (MS-INBRE) invites community organizations to apply for the Community Organization Proposal Awards. The Community Organization Proposal Awards are intended to provide funding for community organizations to build community-academic teams that can address the critical challenges imposed by Mississippi’s top public health issues. 

Topic areas must align with federal funding initiatives and may focus on a variety of health topics, including but not limited to the following areas: 

  1. Affordable Prescription Drug Access – Initiatives to promote cost transparency, bulk purchasing, or community-led distribution programs to reduce medication costs and quality.
  2. Opioid & Addiction Recovery Programs – Community-based interventions for opioid use prevention, treatment, and non-opioid pain management alternatives. Fentanyl addition treatment, prevention, and education.
  3. Veterans’ Health & Well-being – PTSD support networks, community reintegration programs, and innovative mental health therapies for veterans.
  4. Telehealth Expansion – Implementing digital health tools, mobile clinics, and telemedicine services to enhance access in underserved areas.
  5. Rural & Tribal Healthcare Solutions – Strengthening community clinics, mobile health units, and local healthcare workforce training.
  6. Mental Health & Suicide Prevention – Community-based mental health first aid training, peer support networks, and crisis intervention services.
  7. Pandemic & Public Health Preparedness – Localized emergency response strategies, vaccine education, real food production, and supply chain resilience projects.
  8. Market-Based Health Insurance Education – Consumer education on alternative insurance models, direct primary care, and cost-sharing networks.
  9. Regulatory Reform & Healthcare Access – Identifying local regulatory barriers and advocating for streamlined licensing and service delivery models.
  10. Chronic Disease Prevention & Management – Addressing environmental and lifestyle factors contributing to chronic illnesses through education and advocacy. Environmental exposure and chronic disease. 
  11. Alternative & Holistic Medicine Healthcare Integration – Promoting access to non-pharmaceutical treatments such as supplements, diet-based therapies, and traditional medicine. Community-driven wellness programs, including nutrition/metabolic health, alternative medicine, food quality, environmental exposure, and individualized care strategies.
  12. Real Food & Health – Promoting the selection of healthier meals through community lead initiatives, food selection and chronic disease, removal of harmful dyes and chemical, nutrition and metabolic health.
  13. Vaccine Education & Safety Research – Community engagement on vaccine policies, informed choice initiatives, and research on natural immunity and gut microbiome.
  14. Prescription Drug Reform Advocacy – Supporting policy research and local initiatives aimed at expanding access to off-label and alternative drug treatments. Accelerating EPA approval for innovative agricultural products.
  15. Medicare & Medicaid Innovation – Piloting community-driven models for cost-effective senior care and Medicaid alternatives.
  16. School Based Nutrition and Fitness – Launching of nutrition and school-based programs.

The Community Proposal Awards occur in two competitive phases: the ENGAGE Award and PROPOSE Award. Awards will support the meaningful involvement of community organizations with our Community Engagement and Training Core and Data Science Core faculty who have grant experience and expertise in lifestyle behaviors (i.e., nutrition, physical activity, sleep) and interventions, integrative care, mental health, body composition and cardiometabolic outcomes assessment, health communication techniques, health promotion/outreach, digital health innovations, statistical analysis and modelling, and cardiometabolic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and HIV/AIDS.

ENGAGE awardees will create community-academic teams that will participate in trainings and workshops to support the design of a pilot research project and subsequent proposal submission plan. The pilot research plan should focus on secondary data analysis that is an important part of the health issue of interest. As a part of the ENGAGE award, funding will be provided to support the development of a research plan for the PROPOSE application.  The competitive PROPOSE award is a two-year award where applicants complete their pilot project and submit a funding application that is intended to continue the pilot work through larger NIH federal funding avenues. 

Eligibility

Eligible applicants include community organizations. For this award, a community organization is defined as a non-Federal or non-academic organization whose primary purpose is to provide goods, services, support, resources, or advocacy to members of a Mississippi community. Examples of eligible organizations include faith-based organizations, public healthcare systems, school districts, social services agencies, non-federal government agencies (including local, regional, Tribal or state level governments and their respective departments of public health, commerce, labor, transportation, housing and recreation). Community organizations must also have appropriate systems, policies and procedures in place to manage funds and activities.

Academic research centers and academic healthcare organizations are not eligible to apply for these awards, however, individual academic researchers can be involved as key collaborators and partners of the community organizations.

Please also note that previous ENGAGE Awardees are not eligible to apply for the same award.

Amounts

Total allowable direct costs: $20,000/year for 1 year. Indirect costs (F&A) are in addition to the allowable direct costs. Costs must be germane to participating in training activities to develop the research project, and cannot include any human subjects or data collection activities.

Key Dates
  • Letter of Intent Due Date: February 13, 2026
  • Full Application Due Date: March 16, 2026
  • Application Review: March 17-31, 2026
  • Finalist presentations to External Advisory Board: May 2026
  • Award Notifications Begin: June 2026
  • Project Start Date: September 1, 2026
  • Project End Date: August 31, 2027
  • 4-hour Required Orientation at USM campus: August 2026
  • 1-hour Team Meetings and Workshops: Twice per month, August 2026 – May 2027

Download Full Funding Opportunity Announcement

Click the button below to submit your Letter of Intent:

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