Teams of three people—two researchers and one community partner—who are interested in applying research to build healthier, more equitable communities.
Researchers must have a terminal degree in their field (e.g., PhD) or extensive research or evaluation experience.
Community partners must have close ties to a community of interest, must have the potential to take action on the issue themselves or have relationships with entities that can take action.
Teams must include members from different disciplines and perspectives.
Teams do not need to be located in the same geographic area, but must work cohesively together.
What do fellows receive?
Leadership training.
Opportunities to learn and apply cutting-edge research methods.
Annual support of $25,000 per person for three years.
A one-time research grant of up to $125,000 per team to design and implement a research project.
Events normally held in-person will be virtual until it is safe to conduct them in person. However, much of the curriculum is intended to be completed in your own community. Any and all changes to the program curriculum, timeline, or experience will be communicated frequently and clearly.
Successful IRL teams have these top three qualities: 1) the capacity and desire to become a research leader advancing population health and health equity; 2) a compelling vision for how research and community partners will collaborate and be accountable to and engage with the community; and 3) the ability to conduct credible and transparent research with a strong potential to inform policy or action at the local and/or national level, properly scaled, and not too ambitious. To learn more, please see our Crafting a Competitive Application and Building a Team pages
Community partners may work in a variety of organizational settings, as long as their experience and expertise are relevant to the proposed research project. The community partner can work in any area, including community organizing, education, health care, local government, or any range of nonprofit and private sectors, whether health care-related or not.
For the purposes of this program, community partners are deeply engaged with the community of interest. Individuals must have the potential to take action on the issue themselves or have relationships with entities that can take action. We aim to help develop community partners as research leaders, too. So while not professional researchers, community partners should be interested in using and helping to execute credible and transparent research for action.
Community Partners in Cohort 7 will be eligible to work with an organization to apply for mini grants from the National Program Center to provide additional financial support for the community partner’s employer, sponsoring institution, or another community organization directly involved in the research to help build the research capacity and infrastructure within the community organization. One example of how this additional support can be used is to support other staff and personnel at the community organization to help advance the IRL research project so the burden of work doesn’t fall exclusively on the community partner. This opportunity will generally be limited to Section 501(c)(3) public charities and government entities.
We are looking for applicants who are mid-career, rather than early-career or late-career. While we don’t have a set definition for “mid-career,” generally speaking, a researcher would be considered “mid-career” if they are more than three years out from their PhD (or another terminal degree) or have extensive (e.g., 10+ years) rigorous research or evaluation experience. Importantly, the determination of mid-career need not be based on rank. We want team members who are skilled and experienced in doing research and past the initial phase of their career, but not at the end. Researchers and community leaders who are interested in being included as team members are invited to make their case for their mid-career status in the application materials. We focus on “mid-career” because these individuals are in a unique position where they have gained the skills and experience to lead but also have time to implement their learning and influence their peers and organizations as they continue to work formally for a significant time beyond the IRL program.
No, researchers do not need to be based at an academic institution. Researchers may hold appointments or positions in applied research firms or community organizations. We encourage you to browse through our website to get a sense of our IRL fellows, teams, and their research projects. For applications to the IRL program, the institution or organization where the researchers are employed must have the capacity to support the proposed research and fellowship participation.
A PhD or related degree is not required for the IRL program, although many researchers in the IRL program have earned a PhD or related degree. Each research applicant should state their relevant experience in the application. We select teams who demonstrate a strong record of excellence in research or evaluation. Researchers from diverse disciplinary and demographic backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
We assess the research experience of the team as a collective. This includes the team having some past experience working on the theme in the application. For some, teams can show a clear record of quality peer-reviewed publications. For others, white-paper reports, policy briefs, community reports, a model policy language, Op-Eds, public advocacy documents, books, or other documents that illustrate past experience with action-oriented research. Overall, there is no one metric. Applicants and team members must make their case. Again, we are interested in researchers interested in creating credible and transparent evidence for action.
No, doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows are not considered “mid-career researchers.” In addition, persons on NIH or NSF training fellowships (e.g., K awards) are ineligible for this program. You must have completed any such program before the start of the IRL program.
No. Newly formed teams are eligible to apply. All teams should describe a plan for maintaining team cohesion. Shared leadership among the fellows in a team is a component of the application and selection process. More specifically, each team must thoroughly describe their experience and plan for establishing and/or maintaining an effective, equitable collaboration. Team members do not need to be located in the same geographical area or have a long history of collaborating together. To learn more, please see our Crafting a Competitive Application and Building a Team pages.
Yes, you can apply to be part of an IRL team as long as, by the Cohort 7 official start date in the program (November 1, 2022), you are not a current/active grantee in one of the following RWJF programs: Culture of Health Leaders, Clinical Scholars, Health Policy Research Scholars, Harold Amos Faculty Development Program, or Health Policy Fellows. Participants in other RWJF research or program grants are allowed and encouraged to apply. IRL Alumni may not apply to be in IRL Cohort 7.
The focus of the 2022 IRL CFA is structural racism and health. The aim for the new IRL cohort, beginning in November 2022, is to generate high-quality, community-engaged research useful for dismantling structural racism and improving health and health equity.
A more detailed research project description in the application provides reviewers with a clearer understanding of your proposed work and impact. We are interested in projects that yield credible and transparent information that is useful for action. Building on prior research is expected but the importance of the proposed research must be demonstrated.
No. IRL funded teams are limited to one community partner and two research partners. For your research, funded IRL teams typically collaborate with contractors, consultants, or engage other community members to complete their work. These collaborations are often included as part of the budget for the proposed research project.
It is our expectation that all teams accepted into the program successfully submit a Revised Research Proposal in March 2023. The first four months of the program will be spent refining the research proposal and teams will have input and assistance from members of the IRL Research Team. Funds for the research project will not be released until submission and approval of a full revised research proposal, approximately six months after the grant start date of November 1, 2022.
Total awards will be up to $395,000 per team for the duration of the three-year fellowship program. This amount includes the annual stipends for all three participants, a one-time team research project award, and annual mini grants for the community partner’s organization.
The first component of the award is a stipend of $25,000 per fellow for each year of the three-year program. These funds are meant to support time for participation in the IRL program. These funds will be paid directly to each team member’s sponsoring organization. In most cases, an individual’s sponsoring organization is their employer.
The second component of the award is for the team research project. We anticipate that the total 2.5-year research project budget, including indirect costs/overhead, will be $125,000. Each team will select an organization/institution (in almost all cases, this will be one of the team member’s employers) that will receive and manage the team research project grant. The recipient organization must be based in the U.S. or its territories.
The third component of the award is the annual mini grants for the community partner’s organization. Each year, community partners are eligible to apply for up to $15,000 to offset expenses related to IRL.
The time commitment for the program is estimated to be one day per week—approximately 20% FTE—for three years. To support the fellows’ time to participate in the program, the grantee organization will receive financial support of $25,000 per team member for each year of the three-year program. It is the expectation of the program that the fellows will fully participate in all program activities.
Yes. For the stipend portion, an optional administrative fee of $1,000 per year, $3,000 in total, may be provided to cover the sponsoring organization’s administrative costs of managing the grant. No other indirect costs will be allowed. For the research project, RWJF’s Indirect Cost Rate Policy will apply and can be found here.
Yes, all travel expenses for all required program meetings will be paid directly by the IRL national program center or RWJF. This will not come out of your grant budget or your fellow support funds.
Applications will undergo a rigorous, multi-stage review process. Per RWJF policy, reviewers’ comments will not be provided to applicants. While we can’t provide applicants with specific reviewer information, we can share some of the qualities of applications that were selected to be part of the program.
If you were not successful in being selected for the IRL program, you are eligible to apply again. If you have previously been part of an IRL funded team, you are not eligible to apply.
Each year, IRL has a specific theme that applicants are requested to address in their proposal. Please make sure any new application has a focus that is aligned with the theme for the cohort to which you are applying.
If you or members of your team apply after not being selected, you will want to consider revising your application in scope, focus, or team composition for a new application. Please see the Crafting a Competitive Application page.
All members of the team must not have previously been selected with a previous IRL team.
