Systems for Action (S4A) is a signature research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that helps to build the evidence base for connecting the nation’s fragmented medical, social, and public health systems.
Donor Name: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, and Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/04/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Launched in 2015, the S4A program supports research studies that test novel ideas for aligning delivery and financing systems across sectors in ways that address the health and social needs of people experiencing health inequities. They consider ideas for systems alignment to be novel if these ideas have yet to be evaluated for their effectiveness in helping medical, social, and public health systems work together to eliminate health inequities. Since its inception, S4A has studied a variety of approaches for aligning systems, using rigorous scientific methods to evaluate their impact on health and health equity. Nevertheless, many promising ideas for system alignment have yet to be evaluated for effectiveness, leaving communities with a limited supply of scientific evidence to guide their health equity work.
This 2025 Call for Proposals (CFP) will provide funding for a new cohort of community-led pilot studies to produce new, actionable evidence about how to help medical, social, and public health systems work together to address forms of systemic racism. Each study funded under this CFP will:
- Be led by a community-based nonprofit, government agency, or tribal organization that serves communities affected by systemic racism;
- Identify a specific form of systemic racism that limits health and wellbeing for affected populations;
- Conduct a pilot-test study of a novel systems alignment (SA) intervention that engages representatives from relevant medical care, public health, and social services systems in collaborative actions to dismantle or disrupt systemic racism;
- Engage people with lived experience of systemic racism in developing, refining, and testing the proposed SA intervention; and
- Partner with an experienced researcher or research team to assist with designing and conducting the pilot-test research activities.
Special Topics of Interest
Foundation is particularly interested in studies of SA interventions that address one or more of the following topics:
- Addressing Resource Inequities Across Systems. SA interventions within this priority area should use novel strategies for equitably allocating and sharing resources across medical, social, and public health systems in order to support collaborative solutions to systemic racism. These SA interventions may focus on solutions to forms of systemic racism that make it difficult for minority communities and minority-serving institutions to secure equitable amounts of funding, staffing, and other resources needed to meet community needs. These interventions may test novel financing mechanisms, payment models, staffing models, or other resource-sharing models that help medical, social, and public health systems work together to address forms of systemic racism. These studies may also test solutions to “wrong pocket problems” that arise when the costs and benefits of collaborative work are distributed unevenly among medical, social, and public health system partners.
- Strengthening the Voice and Authority of Marginalized Communities. Interventions within this priority area should test strategies for strengthening the voice and influence of marginalized, racialized, and Indigenous communities in shaping the priorities, operations, policies, and practices of medical, social, and public health systems. Interventions may test novel governance models, such as governing board representation and authority, novel community deliberation and decisionmaking mechanisms, such as participatory budgeting strategies, novel approaches to public reporting and disclosure requirements, and other innovative approaches to community oversight and accountability. These studies should include a focus on engaging people with lived experience related to systemic racism in developing solutions to systemic racism. These studies may include a focus on Indigenous governance models and community-led decisionmaking processes that honor Indigenous values and practices.
- Equitable Use of Decision Support Tools. SA interventions in this priority area should test the use of novel decision support tools, technologies, policies, and practices that are designed to help medical, social, and public health system decisionmakers identify forms of systemic racism and work together to dismantle and disrupt these forms of racism. For example, interventions may test novel data systems and algorithms that are designed to identify and flag possible instances of unjust racial patterning in the discretionary decisions of health and social system personnel, such as those described in the addendum to this document (e.g., incarceration, bail, parole, evictions, expulsions, billing and collections, program eligibility determinations, community benefit investments, and grant and contract awards for health and social programs). Additionally, SA interventions in this priority area may test the use of policies and practices designed to reduce the risk of implicit bias and discrimination when health and social system personnel make discretionary decisions.
Funding Information
Each award will be up to $200,000.
Grant Period
Awards will be up to 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
The applicant organization for this CFP must be a CBO that is actively engaged in serving communities that experience systemic racism.
- For the purposes of this CFP, CBOs eligible to serve as applicant organizations include Section 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, local and state government agencies, and tribal organizations.
- Preference will be given to applicants that are either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or Type III supporting organizations. RWJF may require additional documentation.
- Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories.
- If necessary, the applicant organization may utilize the services of a fiscal sponsor to support the project’s financial management and grants management and reporting activities. The fiscal sponsor can be the research partner that the CBO has partnered with in this proposal.
- Research institutions such as universities and contract research organizations are not eligible to serve as lead applicant organizations for this CFP, although they may serve as fiscal sponsors for eligible applicant organizations.
For more information, visit RWJF.
