The Sundance Institute announces the opening of a Request for Proposals for Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary. If you are creating a documentary film that frames, examines and amplifies social entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to the central questions of our time, read on to see how you can apply.

Applicants should conform to the substantive content and procedural
instructions provided in PAR-07-379, Behavioral and Social Science Research
on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities

Research Focus

The research proposed should be responsive to the substantive areas
stipulated in NIH PAR-07-379. This document provides background information
about the ESRC-NIH Research Collaboration. It is not re-printed in the
previously published PAR-07-379.

Application Instructions

Contact Information

USA-based investigators should address questions to:

Ronald P. Abeles
Special Assistant to the Director
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health
Bldg. 31C, Rm. B1C19, MSC 2027
Bethesda, MD 20892-2027
United States of America

Phone: +1.301.496.7959
Fax:     +1.301.435.8779
Email:   abeles@nih.gov

UK-based investigators should address inquiries to:

Joy Todd
Research Directorate
Economic and Social Research Council
Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon SN2 1UJ
United Kingdom

Phone: +44-(0)1793-413109
Fax:     +44-(0)1793-413001
Email:   Joy.Todd@esrc.ac.uk

Upcoming opportunities and deadlines:

* February 12 – Nominations Due for CCPH Annual Award. The award recognizes exemplary partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions that improve higher education, civic engagement, and the overall health of communities. The complete “Call for Nominations” is available at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/awards.html.

* March 17 – Applications Due for Community-Engaged Scholarship Faculty Development Charrette, May 28-30 in Chapel Hill, NC. We are seeking teams from 20 diverse colleges and universities across the U.S. to participate in a charrette to facilitate development of innovative campus-wide mechanisms for preparing and supporting community-engaged faculty. The complete “Call for Applications” is available at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/faculty-engaged.html.

* April 4 – Early Bird Deadline for CUexpo Conference, May 4-7 in Victoria, BC, Canada. In lieu of our own major conference this year, CCPH is delighted to be a core sponsor of the third Community-University Exposition, “Community-University Research Partnerships: Connecting for Change.” We encourage CCPH members to adopt the CUexpo conference “as their own” and fully participate in it. The CCPH annual award will be presented at the conference and a CCPH member meeting is scheduled for Monday May 5th. For more information, visit http://www.cuexpo08.ca/index.html.

* April 10 – Applications Due for 11th Summer Service-Learning Institute, July 25-28 in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Gain the knowledge, skills and strategies to incorporate service-learning into the health professions curriculum! We encourage early applications as past years’ institutes have had wait lists. See details at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/servicelearning.html.

The Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funds highly qualified individuals to undertake broad studies of the most challenging policy issues in health and health care facing America. Grants of up to $335,000 are awarded to investigators from a variety of disciplines. Successful proposals combine creative and conceptual thinking with innovative approaches to critical health problems and policy issues.

If you have a project idea that holds promise for enhancing our understanding of significant health-related problems and informing the development of sound health policies, we encourage you to consider applying.

Deadline for 4-page Letter of Intent Applications: March 26, 2008

The complete Call for Applications is available at www.investigatorawards.org or by calling (732) 932-3817. Please visit our website for more information about the program and its awardees.

Although we just turned in our protocol in yesterday, and we are still waiting to hear what the committee says, here are some tips that I have learned so far:

1. The community videographers that we work with can be considered “staff” and therefore the protection of these subjects is not under the authority of the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. Of course, it is still REALLY important to ensure informed consent and the protection of rights, as an ethical imperative, but the IRB application is much simplified by this distinction.
2. At Berkeley, at least, only University staff/students need to undergo a human subjects training. This means that, unless your grant requires it (NIH for example), you don’t have to make every single community participant go through the tedious process of understanding federal regulation on the protection of research subjects. Again, an ethics and safety training is essential to the VideoVoice process, as far as we see it, but this is different from a regulated training on HIPAA and other institutional concerns.

So… now we just need to cross our fingers.

If this subject is of interest to you, look for updates on the main website where we will be posting our consent forms as samples.

As a part of the commitment that they made to the Clinton Global Initiative, Pure Digital Technologies recently announced a goal of giving away one million free Flip Video camcorders over the next five years to nonprofits to help them document world issues and highlight the invaluable work they do across the globe.

In the press release Jonathan Kaplan, the CEO of Pure Digital Technologies, states ‘Non-profit organizations do incredible everyday work that the public rarely sees. Imagine the impact that video would make if every on-the-ground staff member or volunteer had both a camcorder and the ability to broadcast their message to the world.

The deal that they are offering is 2-for-1 price through the Flip Video Spotlight Website for those organizations that are accepted by the scheme.

The deal: your nonprofit gets is a Spotlight Kit for $150.00, which contains two 60-minute Flip Video Ultra camcorders with built-in video editing and publishing software, detailed instructions for easily uploading video to your own website or popular video sharing sites (like YouTube, MySpace, and Blip.tv), tutorials, and other training materials. If your group cannot afford the 2-for-1 price, then the site also gives information about how to apply for funder sponsorship.

The Flip Video Ultra camcorders can be used by staff and constituents who are not trained videographers. The camcorders are easy-to-use point-and-shoot, lightweight, compact devices that produce ok quality video. Some digital cameras can capture video at a similar quality, but this price point for nonprofits can’t be beat!

Learn more about Flip Video.

“We’re not video experts,” said one project participant, “but we do know what we’re talking about.”

“No, You don’t know how we feel” - A film facilitated by Insight. UK, 26mins. This video was created in collaboration with kids in England who are facing the serious illness of a parent. Their film, funded by Macmillan Cancer Relief, is now being distributed to families, professionals and schools.

Insight is a UK/France based organisation pioneering the use of Participatory Video as a tool for empowering individuals and communities. Insight’s Participatory Video methods value local knowledge, build bridges between communities and decision-makers and enable people to develop greater control over their own development and the decisions affecting their lives.

The NIH Partners in Research program is intended to engage the energy of a diverse group of scientists, community leaders, members of the public, and patient advocacy groups. It will seek to develop partnerships between scientific or research institutions and community organizations, and evaluate a variety of approaches in a range of target audiences or communities. The goals of the program are to:

• identify and implement new ways to increase science literacy;
• communicate the research needs and interests of communities; and
• encourage understanding of biomedical and behavioral research by partnering with community-sanctioned organizations, such as voluntary and professional organizations, health groups, faith-based groups, and housing organizations.

The NIH Partners in Research RFA is available on the NIH Guide website