Addressing Mental Health in the Second Decade of Life through Translational Lifecourse Research

In this initiative, sponsored by the Harvard Catalyst Child Health Committee, the community was invited to submit applications for pilot grants to foster and enable collaborative research on mental health and the developing brain in the second decade of life across the T1-T4 translational spectrum.

The specific research priority areas represented topics covered as part of the annual Child Health Symposium held in October 2014. Sponsored by Harvard Catalyst’s Child Health Committee, the symposium “Mental Health and the Developing Brain in the Second Decade of Life: Research Challenges and Opportunities” brought together leading scientists from across the nation for a dialog with Harvard’s child health research community on four topics:

  • Mood Dysregulation
  • Youth Suicide
  • Violence
  • Concussion and the Developing Brain

For this initiative, the first two focus areas were consolidated into one research priority area: mood dysregulation and its consequences. Applications in response to this RFA related to this research priority area or to the violence research priority area.

All Harvard University-appointed junior and senior faculty members were encouraged to apply for this funding opportunity, and the principal investigator or a co-investigator must have attended the Child Health Symposium held in October 2014.

Six pilot grants were awarded in amounts of up to $75,000 for each one-year project.

Funding decisions for the Child Mental Health pilot grants were announced in March 2015.

Sponsoring Program

Child Health

Awardees

Erin Dunn, MPH, ScD | Epigenetics, Childhood Adversity, and Sensitive Periods in Adolescent Depression
Elizabeth Goodman, MD | KEeping Youth Safe (KEYS)
Dina Hirshfeld-Becker, PhD | Neural Predictors of Cognitive and Behavioral Correlates of Mood Dysregulation