Sponsored by Mead Johnson & Company

About the Research Grant:

UNC Chapel Hill has entered into a Collaborative Research and Affiliation Agreement with Mead Johnson.  This agreement provides funding to support research in nutrition in growing children and creates the Center for Excellence in Children’s Nutrition (CECN). This center will fund a seminar series, a national symposium and a number of research grants on pediatric nutrition (ages 1-6). These grants are designed to develop the data needed to compete for external funding. 

Proposed projects may be biomedical, epidemiological, behavioral, or clinical.  They may include laboratory or non-laboratory research projects that focus either on children’s nutrition or on animal work applicable to the understanding of nutrition in growing children.  Human nutrition projects may focus on inpatient or outpatient studies or on epidemiological or community-based research that is social or behavioral in nature. Primary focus is on research in children ages 1-6.

Criteria for Eligibility:

§   Applicant must be a faculty member at UNC-CH

§   Proposed project must focus on infant and children’s nutrition and be likely to result in an R01-type application or to result in at least one publication.

Amount of Grant:

§   Grant size will be a maximum of $35,000 per year for up to two years.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in this opportunity, please submit a 1-page “Letter of Intent” and an NIH-style Biosketch by close of business on Thursday, May 1, 2008.  The letter should include your hypothesis and the questions you wish to ask.  It should also provide a brief overview of the nature, significance relative to nutrition of growing children (ages 1-6), and experimental approach of the proposed research, as well as an estimate of the total project cost. Please specify whether the project is for one or two years.  Letters of Intent are limited to one page.  Letters should be e-mailed to Steven Zeisel: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

A CECN Review Committee will evaluate Letters of Intent and notify you by May 9, 2008. Selected applicants will be asked to submit a full proposal (5 pages).  Full proposals will be due Friday, June 6, 2008 and funding for successful applications could begin on July 1, 2008. 

2007 Research Award Recipients

§   Dr. Leslie Fischer and Dr. Jennifer Hiemenz:  Effects of Docosahexaenoic Acid and Choline Supplementation on Intelligence, Memory, and Attention in Typically Developing Toddlers

§   Dr. Tamar Ringel-Kulka:  The Relationship between Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes Bacterial Divisions and Changes in Body Mass Index in Children Aged One to Four

§   Dr. J. Steven Reznick: Assessing Nutritionally-Relevant Aspects of Cognition in Toddlers

§   Dr. Linda Adair, Dr. Peggy Bentley, Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Dr. Barbara Goldman and Dr. Judith Borja: The Interrelationships of Obesity, Motor Development and Physical Activity in Low Income African American Toddlers

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