Awardees announced: Pilot Funding – Primary and Secondary Prevention of Eating Disorders

Legal protection against weight discrimination. Mechanisms for preventing eating disorders among transgender individuals. Examining how youth experience weight stigma and the role of weight-focused intervention programs. These three projects were recently selected as part of Harvard Catalyst’s Community Engagement Program pilot opportunity on preventing eating disorders. Each awardee received up to $50,000 for one-year projects.

In this initiative, Harvard-affiliated faculty were invited to submit applications for pilot grants to support novel research partnerships with the potential to: (1) generate new evidence or methodologies that foster deeper understanding of the primary or secondary prevention of eating disorders or disordered eating, and/ or (2) evaluate promising interventions that address the primary and secondary prevention of eating disorders or disordered eating.

The specific research priority areas represented topics covered during the Harvard Catalyst/ STRIPED Symposium Reimagining the Frontier of Public Health Approaches to Eating Disorders Prevention: Transcdisciplinary, Translational, Transformative, held on April 30, 2018 These included (1) Effectiveness and Dissemination Studies of Primary and Secondary Preventive Interventions; (2) Studies Focused on Macro-environmental Factors; (3) Translational Research; and (4) Economic and Decision Sciences Research.

While proposals that addressed an area of particular interest were encouraged, this was an opportunity to conduct research in all areas of primary and secondary prevention of eating disorders and/ or disordered eating.