Partnership Development Awards

Partnership Development Awards is sponsored by South Jersey Institute for Population Health (SJIPH). These awards fund community-based organizations in Southern New Jersey to found and develop partnerships with faculty from Rowan University and/or Rutgers University-Camden, focusing on improving health outcomes in South Jersey.

Partnership Development Award - South Jersey Institute for Population Health The South Jersey Institute for Population Health (SJIPH) awarded its first Partnership Development Awards from 2024-2025.

These awards funded community-based organizations working in Southern New Jersey (Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic, and Cape May counties) with $5,000 to found and develop a partnership with faculty from Rowan University and/or Rutgers University-Camden. The next round of applications for the Partnership Development Award is expected to open in summer 2026.

Thanks for your interest in the Partnership Development Award. Applications are now closed. To support and fund community organizations to help them develop community-engaged research partnerships that include at least one faculty member from Rutgers-Camden and/or Rowan University.

These partnerships may also include other community organizations and must be designed to further research on population health. To support partnerships in applying for main round funding of SJIPH’s research funding. For more information on those grants, click here .

To be eligible, projects should meet the following criteria: Is a community-based organization or public health organization Is planning to work on a population health research initiative (understood broadly, inclusive of Social Determinants of Health) in the Southern New Jersey (counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic, and Cape May counties).

Dates for the next round of the Partnership Development Awards will be announced in summer 2026. Applications will be submitted online using SJIPH’s application portal. The application is designed to be community-friendly and brief (1-2 pages).

It includes: Briefly summarize your organization, its mission, and its work on population health in Southern New Jersey, who will be the point person for the proposed partnership, and their role in the organization. The summary should also include a brief history of the organization’s roots in their community and South Jersey.

Briefly summarize the logic for pursuing partnership development and how the partnership would further your work and, if applicable, other organizations involved in the partnership. Briefly summarize the specific outcomes and deliverables you have in forming the partnership. Please consider including an application for future SJIPH research grants as a potential deliverable.

Briefly summarize how you anticipate using the funds. This can include putting funds towards a staff member’s time to work on partnership development or stipends for individuals in the partnership.

The budget should be written as prose and include expected expenditures within the following categories: a) internal staff time (time towards existing staff costs, or stipends for staff to work on the partnership), b) travel and meeting costs to cover training, meetings with higher education representatives, meals for meetings, or conference costs, c) stipends for faculty in the partnership, d) other costs of the partnership.

For more on budget considerations, see the FAQ below. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) How much funding is available through these awards? Ten awards of $5,000 each were awarded in the first round.

We anticipate similar funding will be available for subsequent funding rounds. Who is eligible to apply for these awards? Community-based organizations who work on population health (understood broadly, inclusive of Social Determinants of Health) in the Southern New Jersey (counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic, and Cape May counties) area are eligible.

What types of projects are eligible for funding? Projects that focus on building new partnerships and collaborations to further research are the primary focus of these awards. Collaborations must include Rutgers University-Camden and/or Rowan University faculty members, but these faculty need not be identified before applying for the award.

What are the main goals of these awards? The primary goal of these awards is to foster the building and development of new partnerships among academics and community-based organizations. We have a specific focus on building partnerships in rural communities.

We are specifically interested in increasing applications for our main funding round. What if I do not have an academic partner from Rowan or Rutgers? That’s ok!

Part of the goal of the award is to pay for staff time, mileage, meetings, and other forms of partnership development. We also provide technical support – upon receipt of the award, we can facilitate connections to faculty that fit your organization’s area of focus. Who is eligible from Rowan University and Rutgers University-Camden to be a partner in these research collaborations?

Faculty (tenure-track and NTT), post-docs, staff (e.g. PhD, MD, DO, EdD) from the following units and universities: Rutgers-Camden, Rowan University, Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Rowan College at Burlington County. How to Apply for an Award? To apply for an award, please complete the application form available on our website.

The link will be posted in Summer 2026 when the next round of funding is announced. Can I apply for the award if I have an existing partnership with a university? Yes, but the focus of the award is on forming new partnerships.

If you already have a partnership but wish to deepen or extent it, you may apply and indicate your plans for furthering the partnership. How will the award applications be evaluated? Applications will be evaluated based on the potential for building new partnerships, the relevance of the project to the goals of the award, and the feasibility of the proposed activities.

What are the expectations for how partnership development awards should be spent? The grant money is primarily intended as a small incentive to support partnership development.

It can be used to compensate for time and energy dedicated to the project, for stipends for members working on partnership development, for mileage to meetings, for meeting costs, or to pay for event, workshops, or trainings, or anything else that helps get the partnership off the ground.

We ask that the budget be divided into four categories: a) internal staff time (time towards existing staff costs, or stipends for staff to work on the partnership), b) travel and meeting costs to cover training, meetings with higher education representatives, meals for meetings, or conference costs, c) stipends for faculty in the partnership, d) other costs of the partnership. What are the reporting requirements for these awards?

Because these awards are small, we have tried to keep reporting manageable. We will have check-in meetings at the start and midway point of the award. At the conclusion of the awards, we require brief updates on a) the status of the partnership, b) the use of funds, c) an application or other evidence of action by the partnership (preferably an application to SJIPH 2025 main round research funding).

When will the awards be announced? Awards will be announced in late 2026. Can we submit more than one proposal?

Geography: Does the community-based organization need to work in rural communities in Southern New Jersey? The community-based organization needs to work in Southern New Jersey. It is not required to work in rural communities in Southern New Jersey, but we anticipate funding the majority of the partnership development awards to support rural partnerships.

Can the funding be used for direct research activities? The primary purpose of the grant is to facilitate partnership development, so funding is not meant for direct research expenses (e.g., equipment, data collection). However, it can be used for preparatory activities that contribute to developing a future research project.

Can I apply if my organization is not currently engaged in population health but plans to expand into this area? Yes, provided that your project focuses on population health or on the determinants of health and involves forming new partnerships that address these areas. What is the timeline for using the award?

All awarded funds must be used within one year. Can this funding be used to develop a partnership outside of Southern New Jersey? No, the community-based organization must work within the Southern New Jersey region.

We prioritize rural communities within this area, though non-rural projects are also eligible. What happens if a partnership formed through this award does not apply for the main SJIPH funding round? While the goal is to encourage applications to the main funding round, the focus is on the quality and potential of the partnerships formed.

However, a strong outcome of these awards would be a future application. Who can I contact for more information about the award program? You can contact SJIPH through the following methods: Website: https://sjiph.

org/contact/ We look forward to receiving your proposals and supporting the development of valuable partnerships!