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The Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research (CHPPR) recently received $500,000 from the CDC to investigate solutions that will increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and ultimately increase uptake.

The grant is a supplement to the work CHPPR is already doing as a CDC Prevention Research Centers. The CDC PRCs are a network of 26 centers across the United States focused on the study of chronic disease prevention, particularly among underserved populations. CHPPR has been focusing on increasing rates of COVID-19 testing through a NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations (RADxUP) grant that was funded last Fall.

With this new opportunity, CHPPR investigators will expand beyond COVID-19 testing to COVID-19 vaccine uptake using a community engaged approach to collect data in priority areas, develop a multi-level intervention, and evaluate the effectiveness and strength of community engagement strategies.

“I am looking forward to collaborating with the other Prevention Research Centers on this initiative through the CDC’s Connecting Behavioral Science to COVID-19 Vaccine Demand (CBS-CVD) Network,” said Maria E. Fernandez, PhD, principal investigator for the project. “Having this network will allow us to learn and share with others to effectively translate best practices from behavioral science to improve immunization programming.”

Maria E. Fernandez, PhD and Paula Cuccaro, PhD are multi-Principal Investigators. This is a one-year grant which will run from May 11, 2021 – May 10, 2022.