Partnership Development Award

Submit an Application

Background

The South Jersey Institute for Population Health (SJIPH), established by the Rowan University / Rutgers – Camden Board of Governors to improve health outcomes in our region, is pleased to announce its Partnership Development Award call for 2026. SJIPH’s Call for Proposals will fund 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 and/or Rutgers-Camden.

This funding cycle has two main goals:

  1. To support and fund community organizations to help them create partnerships with at least one faculty member from Rutgers-Camden and/or Rowan University.
  2. To support partnerships in applying for SJIPH’s main round of funding for community-engaged research projects. For more information on the main round of funding, click here.

For this initiative, projects should meet the following criteria:

Community-based organizations should focus on a population health or population medicine approach to directly improve health, build capacity, and/or reduce health disparities in Southern New Jersey.

The geographic focus on the work must be in Southern New Jersey (counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic, and Cape May counties).

For this round of funding, we prioritize applications that a) enhance access to clinical care, b) leverage data-driven health projects, c) advance public health interventions and/or d) utilize population health or public health approaches. Projects that impact rural communities in southern NJ are encouraged. Successful proposals will utilize evidence-based or evidence-informed methodologies to drive measurable health improvements. To support these initiatives, we anticipate awarding up to 10 Partnership Development Awards.

Process

Overview

The deadline to apply is August 31st. We encourage applicants to apply once the call opens in early May. All PDA applications will be reviewed. Applicants will be notified by mid September of the decision. Up to 10 applicants will be selected and invited to participate in our October 9th launch event. The PDA awardees will be recognized in person at the release of the next impact report and will have the opportunity to meet with other community based leaders, researchers, and stakeholders in southern NJ.

Community-based organizations that receive awards will receive $5,000.

At the conclusion of the PDA award, funded organizations are required to complete a survey with 1 ) a brief summary of the developed partnership, 2) a brief summary of how the award was spent, and 3) evidence of a grant application or other effort to put partnership into practice. Our preferred outcome for (3) is application for the SJIPH Call for Proposals for research funding.

Proposal Review

The application is designed to be community-friendly and brief (1-2 pages). The application is submitted through the SJIPH website. It includes:

1. Organization Summary

Application question: Briefly summarize your organization, its mission, and its work on population health in Southern New Jersey.

2. Purpose of Partnership

Application question: Describe the logic for pursuing a partnership development award and how it will strengthen your organization’s current work and mission. Please outline any potential goals of the research you plan to explore together. For this award, we define research as a systematic way of gathering insights or evaluating a project to find evidence of what truly improves health in your community. Research in this context also means a collaborative process of collecting data to identify potential solutions that lead to better public health outcomes. Research can also include an organized effort to gather community feedback or data on a health issue, analyze local information, or test a new program to see how well it works for the people you serve.

3. Impact of Partnership

Application question: Briefly summarize the specific outcomes and deliverables you have in forming the partnership. Please consider including an application for 2027 SJIPH research grants as a potential deliverable.

4. Simple Budget

Application question: Briefly summarize how you anticipate using the funds. This does not need to be itemized, and can include putting funds towards a staff member’s time to work on partnership formation or stipends for individuals in the partnership. For more on budget considerations, see the FAQ below.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  1. What are the main goals of these awards?

    The primary goal of these awards is to foster the building and formation of new partnerships among academics and community-based organizations.

    We have a specific focus on building partnerships that address access to improving health outcomes. Evidence-based and evidence-informed approaches should be prioritized.

    We are specifically interested in increasing applications for our main funding round.

  2. How much funding is available through these awards?

    The awards will be $5,000. We anticipate making up to 10 awards to community-based organizations from the broader Southern New Jersey community.

  3. 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.

  4. What types of projects are eligible for funding?

    Projects that focus on building new partnerships and collaborations among the eligible participants are the primary focus of these awards. These new partnerships should be designed to conduct community-engaged research and/or local data analytic research that will impact health outcomes in Southern New Jersey.

  5. Geography: Does the community-based organization need to work in Southern New Jersey?

    Yes, the community-based organization needs to work in Southern New Jersey.

  6. What are the reporting requirements for these awards?

    Because these awards are small, we have tried to keep reporting manageable. At the conclusion of the award, we require brief updates through a survey 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 2027 main round research funding).

  7. What if I do not have an academic partner from Rowan or Rutgers?

    That's ok! Upon receipt of a partnership development award, SJIPH will help you match with an academic partner. We provide technical support – upon receipt of the award, we can connect you to faculty that fit your organization’s area of focus. Part of the goal of the award is to pay for staff time, mileage, meetings, and other costs of partnership formation for the community organization.

  8. How do I apply for an award?

    To apply for an award, please complete the application form available on our website and submit it by the August 31st deadline.

  9. 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, the potential impact of the research to be designed by the partnership, and the feasibility of the proposed activities.

  10. When will the awards be announced?

    Awards will be announced in early Fall.

  11. Can we submit more than one proposal?

    No.

  12. What are the expectations for how partnership formation awards should be spent?

    The award money is primarily intended as a small incentive to support partnership formation. It can be used to compensate for time and energy dedicated to the project, for stipends for members working on partnership formation, 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 do not require line-by-line accounting of spending.

  13. Who can I contact for more information about the award program?

    For more information about the partnership formation call, please contact SJIPH through the following methods:

    Email: info@sjiph.org

    Website:https://sjiph.org/contact/