The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Data for Action Grants program is a prestigious grant opportunity that allows successful applicants to gain access to limited access, private data sets. These rich data sets are made available through this program to bridge the gap between information gathered by private entities and researchers with important questions to answer with that data. More information can be found here: https://academyhealth.org/about/programs/health-data-action
The process for applying for the grant requires a preliminary letter of intent be submitted to RWJF and only those who are selected to submit applications are considered finalists. Dr. Londhe and I submitted our first letter of intent in 2017, for the first round of grants, but were unsuccessful being selected as finalists. However, we regrouped and improved our application for the 2019 call for proposals. This time, we were selected as finalists and submitted an application. We were unfortunately unsuccessful in this round but were gratified to receive encouraging reviewer feedback. We will continue to apply the lessons learned in this process and pursue opportunities to apply in the future as we’re confident access to these data sets can help bridge some of the gaps our prior work has identified. All of us on our journeys through the maternal experience deserve strong evidence to support our decisions.
