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Georgia Department of Agriculture

Georgia agriculture department grants support rural development, agribusiness, and local food system initiatives across Georgia, funding projects that strengthen farm viability and rural economic competitiveness.

Housing Assistance Council

Pre-development loans for rural affordable housing projects

Housing Assistance Council

Capacity building for rural housing and community development organizations

NIDA - National Institute on Drug Abuse

PROJECT SUMMARY Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use (ATOD), sexual health risks, and postpartum depression (PPD) are common and significant interrelated factors that are associated with poor health consequences for pregnant women and their infants, especially among rural, under-resourced communities. Thus, there is an urgent need to simultaneously address these health risks together during this vulnerable time. While pregnancy has been recognized as a window of opportunity in which to intervene, there are no empirically supported interventions tailored to specifically address these growing public health concerns together in rural women during pregnancy and postpartum. The objective of this R01 study is to fill this critical gap by building upon our promising R21/R01 findings by (1) partnering with a community advisory board to adapt and optimize the existing Health Check-up for Expectant Moms (HCEM) web-delivered Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment or Prevention (SBIRT/P) program to include the interconnected risks of tobacco use and postpartum depression (PPD) among rural pregnant women (herein referred to as HCEM+), and (2) testing the efficacy of the HCEM+ in reducing ADOT, STI, and PPD risk more than a time and information matched control condition in rural pregnant women seeking prenatal care. This research addresses cross-cutting priorities in line with NIDA’s Strategic Plan to advance science on drug use: (1) prioritizing research to combat stigma and improve engagement in treatment, (2) developing and enhancing culturally responsive and tailored interventions, and (3) delivering care for substance use and co-occurring health conditions such as STIs and mental illness. We propose a two-group, randomized controlled trial in which a sample of 250 high-risk rural pregnant women attending prenatal care will be assigned to either (a) a web-delivered, two-session SBIRT/P plus two booster sessions consistent with motivational interviewing and informed by the Information-Motivation-Behavior (IMB) model, the HCEM+, or (b) a web-delivered control condition. Web-delivered follow-up assessments will occur at 8 and 24 weeks antenatally, and at 6 weeks postpartum, extending outcomes to the postpartum period. Specific Aim 1 is to test the hypothesis that HCEM+, compared to an attention, time and information matched control condition, will reduce unprotected sexual occasions and ADOT use among at-risk pregnant women during pregnancy at 2 and 6-months follow-up, and will increase treatment engagement. Specific Aim 2 is to test the hypothesis that HCEM+, compared to control, will reduce STIs and ADOT use at 6 weeks postpartum and will result in better birth outcomes and reduced rates of PPD. An economic evaluation of the costs of the HCEM+ will occur to guide future implementation and dissemination. Results of this program of research are expected to inform the development of a practical, cost-effective, high-reaching web-delivered SBIRT/P program tailored to reach high-risk rural and under-resourced women with extended impact to the postpartum period.

NIA - National Institute on Aging

PROJECT SUMMARY Background: Rural older Americans are at heightened risk for developing and dying from critical illness. Yet despite having 22% of America’s older adults, rural communities only have 1% of America’s intensive care unit (ICU) beds. As such, rural ICUs are dependent on the network of hospitals around them to help care for their critically ill—making rural ICUs particularly vulnerable to external disruptions. Extreme weather events disrupt this network of ICU care and place older adults at risk of increased hospitalizations and mortality. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the long-term effects of extreme weather events on rural ICUs and the older adults they serve. Project Methods: Aim 1: The effect of extreme weather on one-year mortality among critically ill, rural older adults. Survival analyses will evaluate differences in one-year mortality after critical illness among older adults based on exposure to disaster and rurality using Medicare claims. Aim 2: Associations between rural hospital networks, interhospital transfers, and mortality among critically ill, rural older adults affected by disaster. Network analyses will characterize rural hospitals based on interhospital transfer networks. Then, relationships between rural hospital networks and 30-day mortality will be examined among critically ill, rural older adults affected by disaster. Aim 3: Healthcare readiness during disaster events when caring for critically ill, rural older adults. Semi-structured interviews with 45 staff members from four hospitals who cared for critically ill, rural older adults during disasters will create a framework that defines essential elements of healthcare readiness. Unique Aspects of this Proposal: This application tackles a pressing problem—the impact of extreme weather on vulnerable critically ill, older adults in rural communities—by uniting a physician-researcher with expertise in rural ICU care delivery with a nurse-researcher with expertise in the impact of disasters on the health and well-being of older adults. With an experienced team, expert National Advisory Board, and blend of quantitative and qualitative analyses, the PIs are uniquely equipped to address this urgent challenge. Anticipated Impact: Extreme weather events pose a major threat to critically ill older adults who receive healthcare in rural communities. This study will lead to interventions across individual, health system, and community levels that strengthen systems of ICU care and recovery and mitigate adverse health consequences for vulnerable, rural older adults.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Project Summary HIV drug resistance represents a growing and underappreciated threat to the U.S. HIV response. Although more than 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the U.S., only about 60% achieve durable viral suppression, and resistance is a major contributor to treatment failure and regimen switching. Current resistance testing relies on centralized, PCR and sequencing-based platforms that are expensive, slow, and available only at specialty laboratories, requiring multiple clinic visits and highly trained personnel. As a result, same- day, resistance-informed treatment decisions are rarely possible, even in major U.S. cities, and are essentially inaccessible in rural areas, mobile care units, and safety-net clinics serving areas where the epidemic is increasingly concentrated. These gaps most severely affect communities already carrying the highest burden of HIV incidence and treatment failure in the U.S. Without affordable, accessible, point-of-care (POC) resistance testing, the durability of ART and the success of the national Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative are at risk. Our project aims to develop HIV-CRISP to addresses this critical gap by developing a cost-effective, same- visit “test-and-switch” POC device that integrates CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection with a bioinspired microfluidic chip (CamoChip). This fully automated platform enables simultaneous detection of HIV viral load and drug resistance to four major ART classes (NRTIs, NNRTIs, INSTIs, and PIs) during a single clinic visit. By empowering providers to make immediate, resistance-informed treatment decisions, HIV-CRISP reduces delays in therapy initiation or modification and minimizes the risk of treatment failure. The project is structured around three specific aims: Specific Aim 1: optimize a PAMmer-assisted CRISPR system for accurate detection and profiling of HIV drug resistance mutations; Specific Aim 2: enhance CamoChip readout technology for rapid, multiplex POC testing; and Specific Aim 3: integrate these components into a user-informed POC device and validate its performance against standard methods with clinical samples. Each aim not only drives independent scientific advances but also converges on the development of a transformative POC diagnostic. HIV-CRISP represents an innovation in HIV diagnostics with broad public health significance. This platform supports wide access to high-quality HIV care in under-resourced settings across the U.S. and globally, while also providing a foundation adaptable to other infectious diseases and health conditions.

ALLEGANY COUNTY COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT, INC.

CNSTR/RHAB

ALLEGANY COUNTY COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT, INC.

CNSTR/RHAB

Idaho Department of Commerce

The Gem Grant program supports economic development in rural Idaho communities with populations under 10,000, funding infrastructure improvements, public facilities, and projects that support business growth and job creation.

Idaho Department of Commerce

Idaho Commerce provides grants to rural Idaho communities for economic development planning, community infrastructure, downtown revitalization, and projects that improve quality of life and attract business investment.

FIC - John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences

Alcohol use is a major contributor to injury burden worldwide and remains an important public health challenge in the United States (US), particularly in underserved regions with limited access to trauma and behavioral health services. Cameroon, like other Sub-Saharan African countries, is disproportionately affected by alcohol- related injuries (ARIs), with higher injury burden and alcohol consumption than neighboring countries. Similar barriers to integrating alcohol use disorder (AUD) interventions into trauma care also persist in low-resource trauma settings in the US, where workforce shortages and constrained trauma systems limit delivery of evidence-based AUD care. As involvement in an ARI significantly increases the risk of subsequent ARIs, failure to address AUD in injured patients currently represents a missed opportunity for both AUD treatment and injury prevention. The Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model is an evidence-based intervention used in emergency departments (EDs) in high-income countries, including the US, to identify and address AUD. However, implementation of SBIRT remains inconsistent in US resource- limited trauma settings due to staffing, workflow, and infrastructure barriers. Cameroon provides a unique opportunity to evaluate scalable SBIRT implementation strategies in a severely resource-constrained trauma system where AUD services are limited but where strong trauma research infrastructure and pilot data already exist. The long-term goal of this project is to reduce the burden of ARIs by leveraging research infrastructure in Cameroon to develop scalable evidence-based models for integrating AUD interventions into trauma systems. The overall objective is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a Cameroon-adapted SBIRT intervention in the ED setting. We hypothesize that the adapted SBIRT intervention will significantly reduce hazardous alcohol use among trauma patients. To achieve this objective, the study will pursue three aims: 1) train ED healthcare providers on a Cameroon-adapted SBIRT program; 2) evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of SBIRT implementation in the Cameroonian ED context; and 3) evaluate effectiveness of SBIRT implementation in reducing hazardous drinking behaviors and PEth biomarker levels. This study will leverage implementation science methods to evaluate real-world implementation and scalability of SBIRT in a resource- constrained trauma system. Findings from this work may inform scalable implementation approaches for underserved trauma settings in the US, including rural hospitals and trauma deserts with limited access to integrated AUD care, while also supporting broader implementation across low-resource settings globally.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Global resurgence of curable sexually transmitted infections (STI) is a public health concern due to their severe associated morbidities and increasing antimicrobial resistance. Inadequate diagnosis leads to under- and overtreatment, fueling HIV/STI risk, antimicrobial resistance, and adverse fertility and pregnancy outcomes. To address this critical gap, the Center for Family Health Research in Rwanda and Emory colleagues developed and validated a CT/NG diagnostic algorithm for women informed by local epidemiology as recommended by WHO. Among symptomatic women seen at our clinic, our algorithm had a sensitivity of 79-91% versus 26% using the Rwandan National Guidelines. Formative work confirms providers can be trained to use our algorithm, though microscopy capacity requires development. Our proposal aims to implement and evaluate our algorithm, including microscopy, in public HC to improve RTI diagnosis in Rwandan women. Scientific rationale for conducting this work in Rwanda. Rwanda is uniquely suited to answer these questions faster and at lower cost than the US. STI burden in our Rwandan cohort (NG 26%, CT 16%) far exceeds US primary care rates, enabling adequate power at a fraction of the domestic sample size. Rwanda’s universal syndromic management policy provides a clearly defined comparator unavailable in the heterogeneous US system. Finally, PI Wall’s decade-long CFHR partnership and existing algorithm validation means work can begin immediately with infrastructure and community trust in place. We will first conduct stakeholder interviews and needs assessments guided by an implementation science framework in 4 HC to understand perceptions, barriers, and facilitators to implementing our algorithm with microscopy (Aim 1). Based on Aim 1 findings, we will co-design training and quality assurance protocols and pilot our algorithm with microscopy using a self-controlled case series design among 310 women in 4 Rwandan HC (Aim 2). The REAIM framework will guide evaluation of algorithm with microscopy feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness (Aim 3). Study findings will be shared with high-level stakeholders throughout the study to solicit feedback to inform future studies and for public health impact. Although conducted in Rwanda, this work directly advances the health of Americans: STI prevalence in high-burden US communities approaches Rwandan levels, microscopy for RTI diagnosis is similarly underutilized in US primary care, and the validated diagnostic algorithm and implementation package developed here can be directly applied and utilized across the United States to offer expanded and enhanced care to Americans for whom comprehensive STI testing in pregnancy and primary care remains out of reach, such as in rural communities and for individuals in urban areas that do not routinely access primary or preventive health care.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Global resurgence of curable sexually transmitted infections (STI) is a public health concern due to their severe associated morbidities and increasing antimicrobial resistance. Inadequate diagnosis leads to under- and overtreatment, fueling HIV/STI risk, antimicrobial resistance, and adverse fertility and pregnancy outcomes. To address this critical gap, the Center for Family Health Research in Rwanda and Emory colleagues developed and validated a CT/NG diagnostic algorithm for women informed by local epidemiology as recommended by WHO. Among symptomatic women seen at our clinic, our algorithm had a sensitivity of 79-91% versus 26% using the Rwandan National Guidelines. Formative work confirms providers can be trained to use our algorithm, though microscopy capacity requires development. Our proposal aims to implement and evaluate our algorithm, including microscopy, in public HC to improve RTI diagnosis in Rwandan women. Scientific rationale for conducting this work in Rwanda. Rwanda is uniquely suited to answer these questions faster and at lower cost than the US. STI burden in our Rwandan cohort (NG 26%, CT 16%) far exceeds US primary care rates, enabling adequate power at a fraction of the domestic sample size. Rwanda’s universal syndromic management policy provides a clearly defined comparator unavailable in the heterogeneous US system. Finally, PI Wall’s decade-long CFHR partnership and existing algorithm validation means work can begin immediately with infrastructure and community trust in place. We will first conduct stakeholder interviews and needs assessments guided by an implementation science framework in 4 HC to understand perceptions, barriers, and facilitators to implementing our algorithm with microscopy (Aim 1). Based on Aim 1 findings, we will co-design training and quality assurance protocols and pilot our algorithm with microscopy using a self-controlled case series design among 310 women in 4 Rwandan HC (Aim 2). The REAIM framework will guide evaluation of algorithm with microscopy feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness (Aim 3). Study findings will be shared with high-level stakeholders throughout the study to solicit feedback to inform future studies and for public health impact. Although conducted in Rwanda, this work directly advances the health of Americans: STI prevalence in high-burden US communities approaches Rwandan levels, microscopy for RTI diagnosis is similarly underutilized in US primary care, and the validated diagnostic algorithm and implementation package developed here can be directly applied and utilized across the United States to offer expanded and enhanced care to Americans for whom comprehensive STI testing in pregnancy and primary care remains out of reach, such as in rural communities and for individuals in urban areas that do not routinely access primary or preventive health care.

NCI - National Cancer Institute

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the US. Although lung cancer screening (LCS), using low- dose CT scan, decreases lung cancer mortality through early disease identification, fewer than 1 in 6 eligible individuals get screened, with significant differences based on demographic and socio-economic factors. LCS is a process, not just a test. The critical first steps in this process are (1) identification of high-risk individuals who are eligible for LCS, and (2) recruitment of these individuals into an LCS program. The Emergency Department (ED) setting is optimal for an intervention to promote LCS by accomplishing these steps. Individuals at high risk for lung cancer are over-represented in the ED population, including: individuals that smoke, non-White individuals, patients with lower education levels, and the under-insured. In fact, over 2.3 million high-risk people pass through EDs every year who are eligible for LCS but have never been screened. The investigators’ long-term goal is to develop a low-cost, scalable intervention that increases LCS uptake among ED patients and is deployable in any ED with a regionally referrable LCS program. The objective of the proposed randomized clinical trial is to test the efficacies of text messaging and a facilitated referral strategy to promote uptake of LCS in order to achieve this goal. Step 1 of the approach is to identify participants that are eligible for LCS. Step 2 is to randomize eligible participants, using a 2x2 design, among four study arms: (1) basic referral for LCS (i.e. verbal referral with written materials; comprising an enhanced control arm), (2) basic referral plus a subsequent series of text messages, grounded in behavioral change theory, aimed at generating intention and motivation to get screened, (3) facilitated referral for LCS (i.e. submission of a requisition to LCS program by staff), and (4) facilitated referral plus text messages. The investigators’ pilot work demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed approach. A total of 1036 individuals eligible for LCS will be recruited from a high-volume urban ED and a low-volume rural ED, randomized among study arms, and followed-up at 120 days to assess interval LCS uptake. The Specific Aims of the proposed project are, (1) Compare LCS program uptake among study arms that receive text messages to study arms that do not, (2) Compare LCS program uptake among study arms with basic referral to study arms with facilitated referral, (3) Investigate the interaction between receipt of text messages (yes/no) and referral type (basic/facilitated), and (4) Evaluate participant feedback on (a) differential barriers to LCS across sub-groups and (b) acceptability and appropriateness of ED-based promotion of LCS. The study team is at the forefront of developing ED-based interventions to promote cancer screening. This project leverages the universal access setting of the ED to identify individuals at greatest risk for lung cancer and get them screened. A scalable ED-based intervention that increases LCS uptake would save lives.

Infosys Foundation

100M+ USD/yr supporting education, healthcare, rural development, and arts in India.

U.S. National Science Foundation

Infrastructure systems comprise complex connections between physical components, organizational structures and operational methods that support the needs of people and communities at the local, regional, national, and global scales. Such systems form the backbone of society, providing essential services as well as ensuring public health and welfare, economic prosperity and national security, and are expected to function under all operational conditions. Meanwhile, infrastructure systems are capital intensive and vulnerable to disruptions from extreme events, including natural disasters, social crises, and malicious attacks. Disruptions in one system can have cascading impacts on others in space and over time. Moreover, short- versus long-term trade-offs, unintended consequences, and maladaptation are not often accounted for. How systems function at the extreme, which can be due to disruptors from the introduction of innovation, the convergence of technologies, sudden changes to their utilization and access, dramatic changes in operating environments, and changes to demand during crises are of particular interest. To ensure the efficiency, sustainability, resilience, and fair use of infrastructure systems, it is important to continuously improve and optimize their design, operations, system monitoring and performance assessment in dynamic, uncertain and sometime unknown environments. While functioning at extremes is of interest, the program also supports infrastructure systems research under the full range of operating conditions, across a variety of hazards, and in urban, suburban, and rural communities. The program particularly encourages interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary exploration that will open new research frontiers and significantly expand and transform relevant research communities. The program welcomes research that addresses novel system integration, user-inspired system and service design, data analytics, and socio-technical studies focused on engineering and system innovation during normal and extreme conditions. The program also values innovative research efforts focused on collecting, standardizing, and sharing large-scale databases of real-world infrastructure systems and people-infrastructure interactions during normal and extreme operating conditions, which can be instrumental in providing benchmarks for model verification and validation and for advancing future research innovation in ISP. The ISP program supports research on lifeline systems and communities that contributes to the National Science Foundation s role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). Principal Investigators are encouraged to leverage NSF s investments in the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) experimental, computational modeling and simulation, and data resources (https://www.designsafe-ci.org/) in their research to accelerate advances needed for reducing the impacts of natural hazards on infrastructures and people. While physics-based subject-matter knowledge may be crucial in many research efforts, the program does not support research whose primary methodological contribution focuses on individual infrastructure components without a systems research perspective whose primary methodological focus is on geotechnical and structural engineering, material sciences, architectural engineering, wireless communication and sensor technology, human factors, and/or hydrologic or environmental engineering. Proposers are actively encouraged to email a one-page project summary to the ISP Program Officers before submitting a full proposal for guidance on whether the proposed research topic falls within the scope of the ISP program; this guidance should especially be requested for multi-disciplinary research proposals, and proposals for which research and/or development on the subject infrastructure(s) are also supported by other federal and/or state agencies.

U.S. National Science Foundation

Infrastructure systems comprise complex connections between physical components, organizational structures and operational methods that support the needs of people and communities at the local, regional, national, and global scales. Such systems form the backbone of society, providing essential services as well as ensuring public health and welfare, economic prosperity and national security, and are expected to function under all operational conditions. Meanwhile, infrastructure systems are capital intensive and vulnerable to disruptions from extreme events, including natural disasters, social crises, and malicious attacks. Disruptions in one system can have cascading impacts on others in space and over time. Moreover, short- versus long-term trade-offs, unintended consequences, and maladaptation are not often accounted for. How systems function at the “extreme,” which can be due to disruptors from the introduction of innovation, the convergence of technologies, sudden changes to their utilization and access, dramatic changes in operating environments, and changes to demand during crises are of particular interest. To ensure the efficiency, sustainability, resilience, and fair use of infrastructure systems, it is important to continuously improve and optimize their design, operations, system monitoring and performance assessment in dynamic, uncertain and sometime unknown environments. While functioning at extremes is of interest, the program also supports infrastructure systems research under the full range of operating conditions, across a variety of hazards, and in urban, suburban, and rural communities. The program particularly encourages interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary exploration that will open new research frontiers and significantly expand and transform relevant research communities. The program welcomes research that addresses novel system integration, user-inspired system and service design, data analytics, and socio-technical studies focused on engineering and system innovation during normal and extreme conditions. The program also values innovative research efforts focused on collecting, standardizing, and sharing large-scale databases of real-world infrastructure systems and people-infrastructure interactions during normal and extreme operating conditions, which can be instrumental in providing benchmarks for model verification and validation and for advancing future research innovation in ISP. The ISP program supports research on lifeline systems and communities that contributes to the National Science Foundation’s role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). Principal Investigators are encouraged to leverage NSF’s investments in the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) experimental, computational modeling and simulation, and data resources (https://www.designsafe-ci.org/) in their research to accelerate advances needed for reducing the impacts of natural hazards on infrastructures and people. While physics-based subject-matter knowledge may be crucial in many research efforts, the program does not support research whose primary methodological contribution focuses on individual infrastructure components without a systems research perspective whose primary methodological focus is on geotechnical and structural engineering, material sciences, architectural engineering, wireless communication and sensor technology, human factors, and/or hydrologic or environmental engineering. Proposers are actively encouraged to email a one-page project summary to the ISP Program Officers before submitting a full proposal for guidance on whether the proposed research topic falls within the scope of the ISP program; this guidance should especially be requested for multi-disciplinary research proposals, and proposals for which research and/or development on the subject infrastructure(s) are also supported by other federal and/or state agencies.

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

ABSTRACT The University of Minnesota (UMN) Innovative Approaches to Trauma Care Program will provide dual mentorship-based training to surgery residents, critical care fellows, and emergency medicine fellows in a broad variety of topic areas that relate to trauma and critical care. Trauma is the number one cause of death for people under the age of 46, and deaths are more likely to occur in less severely injured patients in rural settings compared to their urban counterparts. Major gaps and pressing questions in the area of optimal trauma care include 1) evaluating the effect of prehospital care interventions on patient-centered outcomes; 2) optimizing trauma/critically ill patient monitoring (e.g., wearable sensors, AI-assisted early warning systems, and prehospital telemedicine); 3) advancing innovative, patient-centric clinical trials targeting the leading causes of death and disability post-injury; and 4) developing novel solutions to improve rural trauma care. Physician scientists are uniquely positioned to create and lead interdisciplinary teams due to their broad network of health professionals and non-physician scientists. However, physician scientists are becoming exceedingly rare, with only 1.5% of active physicians currently funded by the NIH1. Our program will provide a research focused curriculum, access to high-quality mentors and collaborators, and provision of protected time, all critical to launching early career physician scientists. Curriculum: Our two-year program will consist of four tracks including 1) Clinical Trial Innovation, 2) Rural Trauma Care, 3) Trauma and Critical Care Outcomes, and 4) Translational Preclinical Research. The trainee project topic areas will broadly include trauma care, including: early resuscitation, wound infection and prevention, hemorrhagic shock, and prehospital interventions after severe injury. By the end of the fellowship, trainees will also receive a relevant Master's degree. Co-Directors, Mentors, and Collaborators: The Co-Directors of this program are physician scientists in Surgery and Emergency Medicine and leaders of the Translational Center for Resuscitative Trauma Care, a Center at the University of Minnesota Medical School that improves trauma care through the creation of technologies and knowledge products deployable by first responders and hospital-based healthcare workers. Mentorship within our program also features nationally and internationally recognized mentors in Acute Care Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Prehospital Emergency Care, Critical Care, and Biostatistics. Moreover, we have unique training opportunities related to rural trauma care (University of Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota Department of Health), established linkage of prehospital data to outcomes for rapid hypothesis development and testing (eso and UMN-led database), and innovative emergency care clinical trial design development and leadership (SIREN network and UMN School of Public Health). We have strong collaborations with four Minnesota Level 1 trauma Centers with a combined total of more than 15,000 trauma admissions/year with active clinical trial activity that can be leveraged by our trainees.

National Park Service

This announcement is to provide public notice of the National Park Service (NPS), intention to fund the following project with University of Alaska Fairbanks under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) program. CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. The project intended award is $80,458. STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Agreements Concerning Cooperative Research and Training on NPS Resources (16 U.S.C. 1a-2(j)): The Secretary may enter into agreements with public or private educational institutions, States and their political subdivisions, for the purpose of developing adequate, coordinated, cooperative research and training programs concerning the resources of the National Park System, and pursuant to such agreements, to accept from and make available to the cooperator such technical and support staff, financial assistance for mutually agreed upon research projects, supplies and equipment, facilities, and administrative services relating to cooperative research units as the Secretary deems appropriate. OVERVIEW:This project will facilitate the collection of data related to non-subsistence (i.e., sport hunter) hunter expectations, background knowledge, activities, characteristics, and experiential evaluations in western part of Noatak National Preserve. The project also is designed to document conditions in the preserve as experienced by hunters. This project serves to set a baseline of the conditions related to sport hunter activity in the preserve and their perspectives on the quality of the experience. It also serves to empirically (indirectly and directly) document the activities of sport hunters and the support services they rely upon in the region. STATEMENT OF JOINT OBJECTIVES/PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN The project consists of the following primary data collection objectives that will be conducted both in the field and via postage or digital online surveys: Collect background demographic information and motivational information on hunters. Collect descriptive data on caribou target and harvest methods or strategies used by sport hunters. Collect baseline sport hunt trip evaluation data related to the condition of the backcountry, interactions with other parties and with motorized sounds. Collect baseline measures of the level of awareness by sport hunters related to cultural norms and subsistence use in the area as well as current regulatory/management strategies and alternatives. Data can be gathered from the fall 2013 sport hunters at the Kotzebue Airport. However, gathering data from those who hunted in earlier years (i.e., 2010-2012) is contingent on receiving harvest ticket information from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Secondary data collection objectives include: Conducting interviews with sport hunters and guides. Collecting baseline spatial data (i.e., with GPS units) to answer where, when, and how sport hunters use the preserve. RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT 1. Collaboratively undertake a study titled, Investigating Social and Spatial Aspects of Sport Hunting in Western Noatak National Preserve as described throughout this document. 2. Lead effort for approval of the survey instrument. 3. Compile all data sets in a format that allows them to be easily transferred to the sponsor agency. 4. Produce an interim, milestone report on project status and findings to management related to the research by December 2013 and a final report that includes conclusions and management recommendations by December 2014. 5. Work cooperatively with NPS staff to publish a Natural Resources Technical Report in 2014. 6. Share findings and conclusions via a verbal presentation to managers and interested parties in Kotzebue, AK in late 2014. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE INVOLVEMENT Substantial involvement on the part of the National Park Service is anticipated for the successful completion of the objectives to be funded by this award. In particular, the National Park Service will be responsible for the following: 1. Provide the names and contact information of guides and transporters operating in Noatak National Preserve. 2. Assist in obtaining harvest ticket records from Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 3. Provide coordination, via the NPS Social Scientist, between staff within NPS and between staff from other agencies interested in the project design and outcomes. 4. Work with other PIs involved in related aspects of caribou hunting research in the Noatak. 5. Provide housing support (e.g. transient housing in Kotzebue) for university researchers working on the project. 6. ensure that park specific research permits are granted and compliance is ensured. 7. Provide NPS Social Scientist who will assist with data analysis and interpretation where appropriate. 8. Provide NPS Social Scientist who will assist with presentations and communication of the results, including drafting and publication of results via NPS Natural Resources Technical Report in 2014.SINGLE-SOURCE JUSTIFICATION: Department of the Interior Policy (505 DM 2) requires a written justification which explains why competition is not practicable for each single-source award . The National Park Service did not solicit full and open competition for this award based the following criteria: Unique Qualifications, UAF faculty and research staff within the School of Natural Resources & Agricultural Sciences have conducted similar hunting studies within Alaska, have the necessary contacts with ADFG needed to be successful, have the experience with working in rural AK communities, are logistically capable of deploying technicians in the field from Fairbanks, and, due to the proximity of the school to rural AK communities, can accomplish this field research with reduced costs compared to other contractors or universities.Technical contact information: Andrew Ackerman,andrew_ackerman@nps.gov, 907-455-0643. National Park Service, Alaska Region. End of FOA

Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA)

The Empower Rural Iowa initiative provides grants for broadband infrastructure, childcare expansion, housing development, and other projects that strengthen rural Iowa communities and attract new residents.

Deere Foundation

Invests in workforce development, STEM education, and community prosperity in agricultural and rural regions.

Kansas Department of Agriculture

KDA supports rural Kansas businesses and agricultural enterprises through grants for value-added agriculture, farm diversification, agri-tourism, and rural entrepreneurship development programs.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)

Supports Korean and international NGOs implementing development projects in KOICA priority countries. Focuses on health, education, governance, and rural development.

Land O'Lakes Foundation

Funds agricultural education, rural community development, and hunger relief through cooperative partnerships.