2026 CAFE Health and Extreme Weather Actionable Solutions Grants Program- Applications now open!
Deadline September 15th 12:00 AM EST
CAFE is the Research Coordinating Center of the NIH Health and Extreme Weather (HEW) Program with the overarching goals of convening, accelerating, fostering, and expanding the Community of Practice in this space.The CAFE Health and Extreme Weather Actionable Solutions Grants Program offers grants of up to $20,000 to support innovative projects that can deliver material value within 6 months of funding. This funding opportunity prioritizes projects focused on accelerating discovery, translation into practice, or deployment of solutions to challenges relevant to health and extreme weather.
What We’re Looking For
We invite bold and creative projects that inform actionable solutions related to health and extreme weather. Example project types include, but are not limited to:
- Products: Data dashboards, systematic literature reviews, data analyses, or action plans aimed towards addressing identified stakeholder needs.
- Convenings: Workshops, stakeholder engagements, or community forums with tangible outputs (e.g., white papers, action plans).
- Research Translation Initiatives: Efforts that translate research findings on health and extreme weather into actionable insights for governments, community organizations, or other key stakeholders.
We will consider other types of projects as long as they are expected to yield a tangible output within a 6 month period and would directly inform solutions related to the health challenges posed by extreme weather.
Priority Criteria
Priority will be given to applicants who do any of the following:
- Form interdisciplinary teams (e.g., health science experts collaborating with experts in environmental science, agricultural sciences, geoscience, economics, or social science).
- Involve meaningful connections with key stakeholders (e.g., government, community organizations, NGOs).
- Support Early Stage Investigators (ESIs).
- Application Deadline: September 15, 2026
- Anticipated Notification Date: October 2026
- Grant Amount: Up to $20,000
- Project Duration: up to 6 months
- Focus: Solutions-oriented projects addressing health and extreme weather
- Goal: Accelerate the use of research to inform actionable solutions for the health challenges posed by extreme weather
Program Guidelines:
- We are currently only accepting applications from academic institutions in the US.
- As this grant is being administered by a joint initiative of Boston University and Harvard University, researchers from these institutions are ineligible to apply.
- Applications must be consistent with the priorities of the NIH HEW Program as outlined in their published Strategic Framework.
- We cannot support any activities that would meet the NIH definition of a clinical trial.
- Applications will be initially reviewed by the internal CAFE team who will consider project feasibility, relevance to the NIH HEW Program, potential impact, and strength of the team.
- Final funding decisions will incorporate feedback from NIH Program staff.
- Applications must be submitted through the applicant’s Office of Sponsored Programs to ensure compliance with programmatic rules outlined above.
- Given the short project timeline, we strongly encourage applicants to have all necessary approvals in place in advance of the award announcement, so that the subcontract can be executed as quickly as possible.
- If you are uncertain about whether a project would be responsive, please reach out to us at climatecafe@bu.edu to discuss.
- Awardees will be required to submit final reports one month after the end of project activities that summarize project outcomes, lessons learned, and potential for future work. There will also be an informal midpoint check-in.
- Awardees will be required to present their work at a CAFE event and, if relevant and appropriate, contribute any data to the shared CAFE Dataverse.
- All resulting publications or presentations are required to acknowledge CAFE support with the statement: "This work was supported by a pilot project award from BUSPH-HSPH-CAFE, funded by NIH U24-ES035309."
How to Apply
Submit your completed application by September 15, 2026, 5 PM Eastern. Applications can be submitted by completing the application below and emailing it along with any supplemental materials (please condense all documents into one file) to climatecafe@bu.edu with the subject “2026 HEW Actionable Solutions Grant Program Application [Last name]”.
Ready to make a difference? Apply now and help ensure that health and extreme weather research informs action.
