Ann Arbor Times

The University of Michigan (U-M) has been selected as one of five institutions to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for establishing a health equity research hub. U-M will receive $6.75 million from the NIH's Common Fund, which is part of a broader initiative called ComPASS, aimed at addressing health disparities across the nation.

ComPASS, an acronym for Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society, is designed to empower community-based organizations in leading projects that address local needs and reduce health disparities. The program emphasizes "hands-on research" and "technical scientific support rooted in health disparities expertise necessary for successful community-led research projects," according to the NIH.

The U-M hub will be directed by Justin Heinze and Roshanak Mehdipanah, both associate professors at the School of Public Health. They are also faculty leads at U-M’s Prevention Research Collaborative. Mehdipanah highlighted the university's leadership in multidisciplinary research: “It will bring together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and community practitioners with extensive experience in applied community-based participatory research, practice and policy focused on addressing structural determinants of health with an equity lens.”

Seventeen researchers from various schools within U-M, including the School of Nursing and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will participate in this initiative. The hub aims to tackle issues related to health care access, food access, and the built environment through its community-led projects. Key partners include U-M’s Michigan Institute for Clinical Research and Poverty Solutions initiative.

Heinze expressed enthusiasm about the NIH initiative: “This is such an exciting NIH initiative to fund communities directly, which in turn leverage their local knowledge and resources to address systemic public health problems facing their areas.” He added that their role as a hub is to provide centralized research resources offering tailored scientific support.

In addition to U-M, other institutions selected as ComPASS hubs include New York University Grossman School of Medicine; University of Maryland, Baltimore; University of Mississippi Medical Center; and Yale University.

The ComPASS program is managed collaboratively by staff from various NIH entities including the Common Fund; National Cancer Institute; National Institute of Mental Health; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities; National Institute of Nursing Research; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; and NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health.