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Principal Investigator: Stephen T Higgins
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $1,113,044
Funding agency: National Institute of General Medical Sciences
PROJECT SUMMARY
Overall Plan
The overarching goal of this application for a Phase 3 Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)
award is to firmly establish the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH) at the University of Vermont
(UVM) as a sustainable center of research excellence. This multidisciplinary center investigates relationships
between personal behavior (lifestyle) and risk for chronic disease and premature death. VCBH made
considerable progress during Phases 1 and 2 towards becoming a vibrant and sustainable center. VCBH
established a strong record of external grant support and peer-reviewed publications with $165.1 million in total
cumulative funding, including $18.3 million from awards to COBRE Project Leaders (PLs), and 917 articles in
peer-reviewed journals, including 515 listing PLs as 1st or co-authors. PLs succeeded in obtaining NIH,
foundation, and industry awards as PIs, Project PIs, and Co-Is. Other Phase 1 and 2 notable accomplishments
included establishing an NIH-supported UVM Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science with an initial P50 award
that was renewed as a U54, twice renewing an NIH T32 training award in clinical addictions research now in
years 31-36, and establishing the new HRSA-supported UVM Center on Rural Addiction and a new NIH T32
training award in neurobiological addiction research. VCBH cores continue to support a vibrant monthly lecture
series, annual national conferences, and guest editorship of an annual special issue of the peer-reviewed journal
Preventive Medicine based on the conferences. VCBH collaborations with other COBREs continue to grow, with
VCBH PI Dr. Higgins chairing two COBRE External Advisory Committees and serving as a member of a third. In
Phase 3, we propose to sustain VCBH competitiveness in obtaining external grant support and fostering new
research and dissemination initiatives. We will continue mentoring early career investigators, leveraging our
three cores that have strong institutional support and broad reach, and coalescing VCBH collaborations around
five areas of scientific strength, each with its own working group. An innovative Pilot Project Program will be
leveraged to support early-career investigators and generate preliminary data for grant applications in current
areas of strength and to foster new research directions. We are confident that with Phase 3 support, VCBH is
well positioned to succeed as a sustainable, impactful, multidisciplinary center of research excellence.
Terms: <Advisory Committees><Applications Grants><Area><Award><Behavior><COBRE><Center of Biomedical Research Excellence><Centers of Research Excellence><Cessation of life><Chronic Disease><Chronic Illness><Clinical><Clinical Research><Clinical Study><Collaborations><Complex><Data><Death><Education><Educational aspects><Environment><Faculty><Fostering><Foundations><Funding><Funding Opportunities><Generalized Growth><Goals><Grant><Grant Proposals><Growth><HRSA><Health><Health Promotion><Health Resources and Services Administration><Individual><Industry><Institution><Interdisciplinary Research><Interdisciplinary Study><International><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Investigators><Journals><Knowledge><Learning><Life Style><Lifestyle><Magazine><Medical><Mentors><Multidisciplinary Collaboration><Multidisciplinary Research><NIH><National Institutes of Health><Nebraska><Neurobiology><Obesity><Pattern><Peer Review><Periodicals><Personal Behavior><Personal Conduct><Pharmacological Treatment><Phase><Pilot Projects><Policies><Position><Positioning Attribute><Preventive Medicine><Publications><Regimen><Research><Research Personnel><Researchers><Risk><Risk Behaviors><Risky Behavior><Role><Rural><Salutogenesis><Schedule><Science><Scientific Advances and Accomplishments><Scientific Publication><Scientist><Series><Structure><Substance abuse problem><System><Task Forces><Tissue Growth><Tobacco><Training><United States Health Resources and Services Administration><United States National Institutes of Health><Universities><Vermont><Vulnerable Populations><abuse of substances><addiction><addictive disorder><adiposity><advisory team><at risk behavior><behavior change><behavioral economics><behavioral health><brain research><career><chronic disorder><clinical care><college><collegiate><conference><contingency management><convention><corpulence><cost effective><disease risk><disorder risk><early-career faculty><evidence base><full professor><improved><innovate><innovation><innovative><interventional strategy><lack of physical activity><lectures><member><multidisciplinary><neurobiological><next generation><ontogeny><periodic><periodical><physical inactivity><pilot study><premature><prematurity><preventative medicine><programs><promoting health><scientific accomplishments><scientific advances><senior faculty><social role><sound><substance abuse><substance misuse><success><summit><symposia><symposium><vulnerable group><vulnerable individual><vulnerable people><work group><working group>