Spring 2024 pilot awardees are reporting progress in their projects

Posted on March 12, 2025June 4, 2025

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative awarded 13 $25,000 Tier 1 pilot grants in spring quarter 2024 to interdisciplinary research teams to investigate pressing population health challenges. The purpose of Tier 1 pilot grants are to support researchers in laying an interdisciplinary foundation for a future project to generate proof-of-concept. Each of these teams has made progress in their respective projects, with the tabs below describing research activities completed to date.

Winter 2024 pilot awardees report mid-project progress in their research

Posted on March 4, 2025May 12, 2026

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative awarded six Tier 2 pilot grants in winter 2024 to interdisciplinary teams of researchers who sought to develop preliminary data or the proof-of-concept needed to pursue follow-on funding to scale one’s research efforts. These projects include researchers from seven different UW schools and colleges, as well as several community-based partners, and address topics ranging from improving the well-being of service providers and children to better managing chronic conditions. Each of the projects have…

Summer 2025 Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship applications due March 27

Posted on February 24, 2025

The Population Health Initiative is again partnering with the University of Washington’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship and CoMotion to offer its summer Social Entrepreneurship Fellows Program. Applications are due by the end of day on Thursday, March 27, 2025. The program offers each graduate or professional student a total of $10,000 each over the course of 10 weeks to explore social enterprise models with the potential to support innovations developed by UW researchers. The four fellows will be selected from…

Spotlight: Martine De Cock’s privacy-preserving artificial intelligence research

Posted on February 11, 2025

The potential for artificial intelligence to solve some of the world’s biggest problems has always motivated Dr. Martine De Cock to work on developing and improving its utilization across multiple disciplines. De Cock, a professor in the School of Engineering & Technology at University of Washington Tacoma, particularly believes in the power of privacy preserving AI in healthcare, which involves securely obtaining and utilizing patient data in order to improve current machine learning models aimed at diagnosing and treating a…

Applications for 2025 summer applied research fellowships due on March 20

Posted on February 4, 2025February 4, 2025

The University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative is partnering with the university’s Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology for the seventh consecutive summer to offer the Population Health Applied Research Fellowship program. Applications for this summer’s cohort will be accepted until March 20, 2025 from undergraduate and graduate students across all schools and colleges on all three UW campuses. This paid fellowship program will offer a multidisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students training in data analysis techniques as…

Initiative-funded pilot develops training for pharmacists to treat people with epilepsy

Posted on January 27, 2025

Epilepsy, a complex spectrum of seizure disorders, which affects about 3.4 million people nationwide, making it the fourth most common neurological disease in the United States. While anti seizure medicines (ASMs) are the first line of treatment, 50% of people living with epilepsy (PWE) experience adverse drug effects that lessen medication adherence and quality of life (QoL). For nearly five years, a team of interdisciplinary researchers at the University of Washington, which included H. Steve White (Pharmacy), Andy Stergachis (Pharmacy…

UW research finds decrease in sweetened beverage consumption after tax implemented

Posted on January 22, 2025March 6, 2025

New research from the University of Washington found a nearly 50% reduction in purchases of sweetened beverages in lower-income households after introducing a sweetened beverage tax. The study investigated responses to sweetened beverage taxes by observing the purchasing behavior of approximately 400 households in Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Philadelphia. Researchers followed the households for a year before and after the tax was implemented in their city, finding a larger price increase in taxed beverages for lower-income households compared to…

Spotlight: Sharon Laing puts community first, and the rest follows

Posted on January 15, 2025

If there is one person you can always count on to be out in the community seeking opportunities for growth, change and improvement, it is Dr. Sharon Laing. Laing, an associate professor in the School of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership at University of Washington Tacoma, uses community-based health research to better understand the needs of the community while ensuring equitable healthcare solutions are offered to structurally marginalized communities. “There is a need to engage with the community and not be…