Centers of Excellence (COE)
Mandated by the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-525), the NIMHD Centers of Excellence (COE) Program creates centers within colleges and universities to address health disparities through four main cores: administrative, research, research training and education, and community engagement. These centers typically become local hubs for health disparities research, addressing the biological, environmental, behavioral, and social factors that contribute to health disparities.
There are two types of centers, Comprehensive and Exploratory, which have identical missions and both provide as much as $950,000 in annual funding for up to five years. Schools applying for exploratory centers must have less than $80 million in NIH institutional funding for the previous fiscal year. There are no funding eligibility restrictions for Comprehensive centers.
The program was launched in 2002 as the Centers of Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (Project EXPORT). In 2007, the title was revised to be NIMHD Centers of Excellence.Goals
- Centralize minority health and health disparities research within an institution or group of institutions into a single research enterprise
- Establish effective partnerships between organizations and communities to conduct original and innovative research to improve minority health and eliminate health disparities
- Strengthen existing training activities that prepare researchers from health disparity populations to conduct minority health and health disparities research
- Enhance community engagement and outreach efforts at participating institutions
The COE program aims to reduce health disparities in several priority diseases and conditions. These include but are not limited to cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, infant mortality, mental health, and obesity. The program also supports research on lung and liver diseases, psoriasis, scleroderma, kidney injury, and other conditions that disproportionately affect health disparity populations. Translational research is also strongly encouraged.
Partnership is also a hallmark of the COE program. For example, the Center for Substance Use and AIDS Research on Latinos in the United States built on an existing collaboration between Florida International University and two community-based organizations: SPECTRUM, the largest nonprofit substance abuse treatment center in South Florida, and Miami Behavioral Health Center, the largest provider of behavioral healthcare services to Latinos in Florida. To reduce diabetes, depression, and HIV disparities, another COE combined the community networks of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science with the research capacity at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Colleges and Universities
Institutions of higher education can only have one active NIMHD Center of Excellence at a time. To be eligible for an Exploratory center, at the time of application, institutions must have less than $80 million in NIH institutional funding for the previous fiscal year. (For example, the limit would apply to FY 2010 funding for applications submitted in FY 2011.)
Currently, there are no funding eligibility restrictions for Comprehensive centers. While schools applying for Comprehensive centers are encouraged to have at least $80 million in NIH institutional funding for the previous fiscal year, it is not required.
Comprehensive Centers of Excellence
Dr. Michael Sayre
Dr. Dorothy Castille
Exploratory Centers of Excellence
Dr. Derrick Tabor
Dr. Irene Dankwa-Mullan
Dr. Shelia McClure
Currently Funded Projects
There are now 51 active centers across 27 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Participating institutions include majority research institutions, medical schools, historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges, and liberal arts colleges. Click the following links to view a full list of current COE programs:
- NCI Designated Cancer Centers
- Centers for Population Health & Health Disparities
- Centers for Research to Reduce Disparities in Oral Health
- Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research