Funding Opportunity for Maximizing the Scientific Value of Data Generated by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program: Dissertation Grant (R36)
This grant supports doctoral students using ECHO’s large U.S. dataset to research how early environmental exposures affect maternal and child health for their dissertation projects.
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: March 17, 2026 (Estimated application due date) | October 15, 2026 (Final submission deadline)
Funding Amounts: Total program funding: $1,260,000; ~8 awards expected; individual award size not specified.
Summary: Supports dissertation research using ECHO Cohort data to advance child health research by doctoral candidates.
Key Information: This is a forecasted opportunity; only U.S. organizations and doctoral candidates are eligible.
Description
This grant opportunity supports doctoral candidates conducting dissertation research in high-priority areas of child health, specifically utilizing data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. The ECHO Cohort provides access to a large, integrated longitudinal dataset (over 71,000 maternal and child participants) via the NICHD Data and Specimen Hub (DASH) repository. Research areas of interest include prenatal and child exposures (physical, chemical, social, behavioral, biological) and outcomes such as pre-, peri-, and postnatal health, airway health, obesity, neurodevelopment, and positive health. The program aims to foster new investigators in early environmental exposures and child health research.
