IPR offers seed grants to nurture and promote population research, with a focus on research that will eventually result in external funding. Priority is given to research that falls within one or more of IPR's five thematic areas, and we especially value research that fits within the scientific mission of the NICHD Population Dynamics Branch. Pending available funding, IPR conducts two grant calls each year with deadlines the third Wednesday in October and the first Wednesday in March.

2025-2026 Seed Grant Recipients

Spring 2026

• Dr. Fangqi Wen, Department of Sociology, Dr. Bethany Everett, Department of Sociology, Reproductive Health Consequences and Fertility Intentions and Behaviors
• Dr. Fernanda Schumacher, College of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics, Dr. Kellie Archer, College of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics, More Than a Number: Bayesian Frameworks for Uncertainty Propagation on Epigenetic Clock Predictions
• Dr. Erin Moore, Department of Anthropology, Dr. Kammi Schmeer, Department of Sociology, T1D-GIRLS Understanding Young Women’s (T)ype (1) (D)iabetes Outcomes: (Glycemic Control, (I)ndependence, (R)esilience, and (L)ived Experience in (S)ocial Context

Fall 2025

• Dr. David Kinitz, College of Social Work, Dr. Rin Reczek, Department of Sociology, Identifying mental health needs and culturally responsive interventions for sexual minority youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET)
• Dr. Donte Boyd, College of Social Work, A Mixed-Methods Study of Developmental Assets and Suicide Prevention in Young Men

2024-2025 Seed Grant Recipients

Spring 2024

• Dr. Maria Gallo, College of Public Health, Epidemiology, and Dr. JaNelle Ricks, College of Public Health, Health Behavior and Health Promotion, Pregnancy Care Seeking Survey
• Dr. Joyce Lee, College of Social Work, Dr. Cecilia Mengo, College of Social Work, Dr. Susan Yoon, College of Social Work, Identifying Child Welfare System Processes Associated with Maternal and Child Health Disparities
• Dr. Ashleigh LoVette, Department of Health Behavior and Health Promotion, Dr. Bridget Freisthler, College of Social Work, Identifying Pathways for Sexual and Behavioral Health Promotion Among Young People Affected by Parental Incarceration
• Dr. Allen Mallory, Human Sciences, Dr. Rin Reczek, Sociology, Recognizing the Racial Diversity in the Growing Number of Adolescents Identifying as Sexual Minorities

Fall 2023

• Dr. Gia Barboza Salerno Department of Social Work and Health Behavior and Health Promotion, Dr. Jacquelyn Meshelemiah, Department of Social Work, Dr. H.B. Franchino-Olsen, Department of Health Behavior and Health Promotion, Dr. Alison Norris, Department of Infectious Diseases and Medicine, Spatial Accessibility of Reproductive Health Care Services Following Dobbs V Jackson Women's Health Organization
• Dr. H.B. Franchino-Olsen, Department of Health Behavior and Health Promotion, Dr. Elizabeth Klein, College of Public Health, Dr. Franziska Meinck, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Patterns of Polyvictimization among Young Children in Ohio: A Pilot Study to Investigate Complex Violence Patterns in the Lives of Children age 6–11 & their Feelings at Being Included in Sensitive Research
• Dr. Laura Prater, Department of Health Services Management & Policy, Dr. Jennifer Hefner, Department of Health Services Management & Policy, Establishing Pilot Data to Support Community Co-Development of Interventions to Prevent Pregnancy-Associated Firearm Injury & Death
• Dr. Sandy Wong, Department of Geography, Dr. Huyen Le, Department of Geography, Dr. Harvey Miller, Department of Geography, Geographic Disparities in Climate Change Vulnerabilities at the Intersection of Disability, Race, and Class

​​​​​​2022-2023 Seed Grant Recipients

Spring 2023

• Dr. Christopher Browning, Department of Sociology, Dr. Baldwin Way, Department of Psychology, Dr. Jodi Ford, College of Nursing, Dr. Bethany Boettner, Institute for Population Research, Racial Disparities in Adolescent CVD Risk Factors
• Dr. Ashley Landers, Department of Human Sciences, Dr. Bridget Freisthler, College of Social Work, Exploring the Impact of Geographic Factors on American Indian/Alaska Native Children’s Out-of-Home Placement
• Dr. Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Department of Psychology, Dr. Joyce Lee, College of Social Work, Dr. Rin Reczek, Department of Sociology, Beyond Mothers vs. Fathers: Gender-Inclusive Assessment of Parenting Behavior

Fall 2022

• Dr. Tansel Yilmazer, Department of Human Sciences, Dr. Lauren E. Jones, Department of Human Sciences and John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Dr. Alex Hollingsworth, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Impact of Pandemic Expansions to Nutrition Assistance on Healthy Food Spending
• Dr. Reanne Frank, Department of Sociology, Mexican-American Childbearing in the United States: What’s Policy Got to Do With It?

2021-22 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Bernadette Hanlon, Knowlton School, Dr. Jason Reece, Knowlton School, Searching for Home and Health: Understanding Black Maternal and Child Health through the Return Migration
• Dr. Allen Mallory,  Department of Human Sciences, Dr. Rin Reczek, Department of Sociology, Dr. Autumn Bermea, Department of Human Sciences, Feasibility of Collecting a National Longitudinal Study of Sexual and Gender Minorities.
• Dr. Parvati Singh, College of Public Health, Dr. Randolph Roth, Department of History, Impact of casino-based cash transfers on youth suicides among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, USA
• Dr. Lauren Valentino, Department of Sociology, Dr. Cynthia Colen, Department of Sociology, Measuring Cultural Logics of Racism & Sexism: Refining our Understanding of How Discrimination Impacts Health & Well-Being
• Dr. Thomas F. McDow, Department of History, Local Histories of Global Health: The Kagera War and Tanzania’s First AIDS Cases
• Dr. Alison Norris, College of Public Health, Dr. Sarah Hayford, Department of Sociology, Dr. Marta Bornstein, College of Public Health, Dr. Jessica D. Gipson, Community Health Sciences (UCLA), Understanding the links between unintended fertility and infertility among Ohio women

2020-2021 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Michael Vuolo, Department of Sociology, 2019-2020, The Effect of Natural Disasters on Drug Overdoses
• Dr. JaNelle Ricks, College of Public Health, Dr. Deena Chisolm, College of Public Health, Dr. Jolynn Pek, Department of Psychology, Dr. Anna Kerlek, Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Development and Testing of Digital Dating Abuse Measure for Sexual Minority Youth
• Dr. Naleef Fareed, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Dr. Kartik Venkatesh, Maternal Fetal Medicine at Wexner Medical Center, Dr. Abigail Norris Turner, Department of Internal Medicine, and Matthew Hoffman, Department of Internal Medicine, An Innovative Clinical Prediction Model for Postpartum Hemorrhage in Low and Middle-Income Countries

2019-2020 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Meta Brown, Department of Economics, Dr. Rachel Dwyer, Department of Sociology, and Dr. Stephanie Moulton, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Household Formation and Inequalities in Financial Coping in the COVID19 Crisis: Building Demographic Insight with New Credit Report Panel Data
• Dr. Kristi Williams, Department of Sociology, Intergenerational Transmission of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Identifying Pathways to Resilience
• Dr. Hui Zheng, Department of Sociology, Immigrant Health (Dis)advantage in the Labor Market
• Dr. Dean Lillard, Department of Human Sciences, Cigarette Smuggling, Taxes, and Substitution Between Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes
• Dr. Madhumita Dutta, Department of Geography, Dr. Arati Maleku, College of Social Work, and Binaya Subedi, College of Education and Human Ecology, Precarious Work & Mental Well-Being in New Spaces: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study among Bhutanese Refugees in Central Ohio
• Dr. Lisa Christian, College of Medicine and Dr. Claire Kamp-Dush, Department of Human Sciences. Establishment of the National Couple’s Health and Time Use Study Biorepository: NCHAT-BIO
• Dr. Rachel Dwyer, Department of Sociology. Overdue: Low-Income Debt, Child Poverty, and Family Stress in the United States
• Dr. Reanne Frank, Department of Sociology. Applying Machine Learning to Identify Immigrant Enclaves
• Dr. Jennifer Garner, School of Health and Rehab Sciences, Exploring the Intersection of Food Insecurity, Food Sourcing and Family Demography
• Dr. Rin Reczek, Department of Sociology. The Role of Motherhood Biographies in Midlife Women’s Health

2017-2018 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Lauren Jones, Department of Human Sciences and Dr. Michael Betz, Department of Human Sciences. Industry Specific Job Loss and Opioid Death
• Dr. Susan Yoon, College of Social Work and Dr. Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Department of Human Sciences. Fathers, Child Maltreatment, and Adolescent Substance Use
• Dr. Elizabeth Root, Department of Geography, Dr. Catherine Calder, Department of Statistics, and Dr. Christopher Browning, Department of Sociology. Characterizing Communities Vulnerable to Opioid Addiction
• Dr. Samuel Clark, Department of Sociology. A General Mortality Modeling Framework in the Era of the SDGs
• Dr. Pamela Salsberry, College of Public Health, Dr. Laura Justice, Education Studies,  Dr. Kelly Purtell, Department of Human Sciences, and Dr. Mihaiela Gugiu, Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy. Context Matters: The Social Determinants of Early Child Development

2016-2017 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Joyce Chen, Department of Agricultural, Environmental & Development Economics. Migration and Climate Change: Environmental Vulnerability and Location Choice in Bangladesh
• Dr. Ayaz Hyder, College of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences. Effect of Lifetime Intergenerational Exposures to Environmental Toxicants and Sociodemographic Factors on Prenatal and Cognitive Outcomes in Children
• Dr. Kammi Schmeer, Department of Sociology and Dr. Barbara Piperata, Department of Anthropology. Predictors of Allostatic Load in Mothers and Children: Biological Evidence from a High-Stress Setting
• Dr. Julie Bower (no longer with OSU), College of Public Health, Dept of Epidemiology and Dr. Randi Foraker (no longer with OSU), College of Public Health, Epidemiology. Selection and Nonresponse Bias in Maternal Health Research Using the Electronic Health Record
• Dr. Cynthia Colen, Department of Sociology. Childhood Lead Exposure and Adolescent Risk-Taking Behaviors: Assessing a Potential Explanation for Recent Declines in Teen Childbearing Using Individual Level Data
• Dr. Amanda Robinson, Department of Political Science, Becoming Black: African Immigrant Integration in the United States
• Dr. Wendy Xu, College of Public, Division of Heath Services Management and Policy, Fertility of Low Income Women under the Affordable Care Act
• Dr. Hui Zheng, Department of Sociology.The Role of Selection in the College Education-Health Link

2015-2016 Seed Grant Recipients

• Drs. Michael Betz and Anastasia Snyder, Department of Human Sciences. Demographic and family change in shale communities
• Dr. Catherine Calder, Department of Statistics and Dr. Christopher Browning, Department of Sociology. Respondent driven sampling for co-location networks
• Dr. Jodi Ford, College of Nursing. Gender differences in the effects of adverse environments on physiologic stress
• Dr. Maria Gallo, College of Public Health, Epidemiology and Dr. Lisa Keder College of Medicine. Initiation of progestin-only contraception immediately postpartum among breastfeeding women
• Dr. Kurt Lavetti, Department of Economics. Dynamic inefficiencies in health investments over the life-cycle
• Dr. Rin Reczek, Department of Sociology. Parent child health across the transition to adulthood
• Dr. Jennifer Syvertsen, Department of Anthropology. Exploring the syndemic of substance use, violence and HIV/STI risk among female sex workers in Kisumu, Kenya

2014-2015 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Christopher Browning, Department of Sociology. The Ohio Study Supplement
• Dr. Alison Norris, College of Public Health, Epidemiology and Dr. Abigail Norris-Turner,  College of Public Health, Epidemiology, College of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases. Choices and constraints in reproductive health decision making among Malawian women supplement

2013-2014 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Department of Political Science.  Methodological advances and applications in network modeling: Accounting for heterogeneity in health behavior data
• Dr. Mark Moritz, Department of Anthropology.  Migration and household water management practices: An interdisciplinary examination of cholera outbreaks in urban Cameroon
• Dr. Abigail Norris-Turner, College of Public Health, Epidemiology, College of Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Dr. Alison Norris, College of Public Health, Epidemiology. Female genital schistosomiasis, HIV and infertility among rural Malawian women
• Dr. Anastasia Snyder, Department of Human Sciences.  Accessing confidential microdata from the NLSY studies
• Dr. Kammi Schmeer, Department of Sociology. Family contexts and physiological stress in children
• Dr. Ningchuan Xiao, Department of Geography.  Computational approaches to exploring the complexity of spatial aggregation
• Dr. Hui Zheng, Department of Sociology. Obesity and mortality: Early origins, selection, and trajectories

2012-2013 Seed Grant Recipients 

• Drs. Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, and Douglas Downey, Department of Sociology. Are there long term consequences to growing up with few siblings? Sibship size in childhood and social life in adulthood
• Dr. Randi Foraker, College of Public Health, Epidemiology. Neighborhood socioeconomic status and 30-day readmission among heart failure patients
• Dr. Jodi Ford, College of Nursing. Linking biological and social pathways to adolescent health
• Drs. Reanne Frank and Kristi Williams, Department of Sociology. Mexican American fertility: A cause for concern
• Dr. Dana Haynie, Department of Sociology. Residential proximity and adolescent friendship dynamics
• Dr. Bo Lu, College of Public Health, Biostatitics. Causal inference in the effect of a dynamic treatment process with applications to reproductive health
• Dr. Alison Norris, College of Public Health, Epidemiology and Dr. Abigail Norris-Turner,  College of Public Health, Epidemiology, College of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Choices and constraints in reproductive health decision making among Malawian women
• Dr. Hui Zheng, Department of Sociology. Heterogenity in mortality dispersion in the developed countries

2011-2012 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Paul Bellair, Department of Sociology. Race, socio-economic disadvantage, drug use and selling in a high risk sample
• Dr. Cynthia Colen, Department of Sociology. Racial disparities in mental health outcomes: Possible explanations for unexpected advantages among African American adolescents
• Dr. Reanne Frank, Department of Sociology. Contemporary US immigrants and residential settlement patterns
• Dr. Trevon Logan, Department of Economics. Network analysis of the market for male sex work
• Dr. Liana Sayer, Department of Sociology. Time use, inequality and health -not displayed, no longer with OSU
• Dr. Anastasia Snyder, Department of Human Sciences. Migration during emerging adulthood
• Dr. Xinyi Xu, Department of Statistics. Calibrated bayes factors for model choice and predictive model averaging

2010-2011 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Rachel Dwyer, Department of Sociology. Generation debt
• Drs. Claire Kamp-Dush, and Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Department of Human Sciences. Genetic and environmental contributions to infant socioemotional health and stress responses
• Dr. Paula Song, College of Public Health. Examining the effects of cost sharing on utilization and disparities in children's medicaid and CHIP, no longer with OSU
• Dr. Richard Steckel, Department of Economics. Preparing a P01 on global history of health for NIH
• Dr. Jeremy Wallace, Department of Political Science. China's management of urbanization: Migration restrictions before and after the global financial crisis, no longer with OSU
• Drs. Dana Haynie and Kristi Williams,  Department of Sociology. Influence of peer networks on health risk behaviors
• Dr. Christopher Browning, Department of Sociology. The Ohio Study

2009-2010 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, Department of Anthropology. Mexicanidad in Ohio: Identity and stress in Columbus.
• Dr. Reanne Frank, Department of Sociology. Health selectivity in Mexico-U.S. migration and return: A binational perspective
• Dr. Desheng Liu, Department of Geography. Improving air pollution exposure assessment by integrating spatial-temporal dynamics of pollution concentration with people's space-time activity patterns
• Dr. Mark Moritz, Department of Anthropology. Livestock movements and disease transmission in the Chad Basin: Modeling risks for animals and humans
• Dr. Kammi Schmeer, Department of Sociology. The household food environment and overweight status of Mexican American children

2008-2009 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Christopher Browning, Department of Sociology. The sociospatial context of health disparities
• Drs. Kammi Schmeer and Reanne Frank, Department of Sociology. Women's partnership transitions and well-being in Mexico
• Dr. Steven Gavazzi, Department of Human Sciences. Racial disparities in mental health outcomes
• Drs. Claire Kamp-Dush and Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Department of Human Sciences. Relationship contexts of fathering behavior across the transition to parenthood in cohabiting and married couples
• Dr. Laura Kubatko, Department of Statistics. Coalescent modeling for genetic mapping in population based samples
• Dr. Linda Lobao, Department of Human and Community Resource Development. Poverty across the U.S. community populations: Do local governments' economic development and public welfare policies matter?
• Dr. Jodi Ford (Nearns), Department of Nursing. School social structure and adolescent concurrent heterosexual partnerships
• Dr. Barbara Piperata, Department of Anthropology. Does wealth translate in health: Evaluating the Bolsa Familia Program in rural Amazon
• Dr. Richard Steckel, Department of Economics. Global health project: An organization conference for the Middle East

2007-2008 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Paul Bellair, Department of Sociology. Neighborhood context and the causes and consequences of street use
• Dr. Claudia Buchmann, Department of Sociology. Growing gender gap in education among African Americans
• Dr. Joyce Chen, Department of Agriculture Education. Migration and social networks
• Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, Department of Anthropology. An international interdisciplinary approach to reducing lead contamination in traditional foods among Mexican migrants in the US and communities of origin: The contributions of epidemiology, anthropology, and community development.
• Dr. Edward Crenshaw, Department of Sociology. Social environments and low fertility
• Dr. Claire Kamp-Dush, Department of Human Sciences. Family structure change and the health and well-being of adults and children
• Dr. Audrey Light, Department of Economics. Divorce as risky behavior
• Dr. Patricia Reagan, Department of Economics, Dr. Pamela Salsberry, Department of Nursing, Dr. Elizabeth Cooksey, Department of Sociology and Dr. Bo Lu, College of Public Health, Biostatistics. Intergenerational influences on birth outcomes
• Dr. Pamela Salsberry, Department of Nursing, Dr. Patricia Reagan, Department of Economics, Dr. Elizabeth Cooksey, Department of Sociology and Dr. Bo Lu, College of Public Health, Biostatistics. Early menarche and problem behaviors in adolescent girls

2006-2007 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, Department of Anthropology. Cultural meaning and nutritional value
• Dr. Rachel Dwyer, Department of Sociology. Dr. Liana Sayer, Department of Sociology. Neighborhood mediated effects
• Dr. Joseph Kaboski, Department of Economics. Analysis of impacts of large scale credit program-not displayed, no longer with OSU
• Dr. Jinkook Lee, Department of Consumer Science. Cross-national studies of aging, health, and socio-economic status-not displayed, no longer with OSU
• Drs. Lung-fei Lee and Patricia Reagan, Department of Economics. Evaluating endogenous treatment effects when the decision to treat is made at an aggregate level and outcomes are observed at the individual level
• Dr. Bo Lu, Department of Biostatistics. Dr. Xinyi Xu, Department of Statistics. Casual inference in observational studies
• Dr. Alan Murray, Department of Geography. Exploration of spatio-temporal variation-not displayed, no longer with OSU
• Dr. Richard Steckel, Department of Economics. Global history of health organizational conference
• Dr. Yongmin Sun, Department of Sociology, Mansfield Campus. Short and long term effects of parental divorce 

2005-2006 Seed Grant Recipients

• Dr. Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Department of Political Science. Child welfare data: Repeated events survival model
• Dr. Dana Haynie, Department of Sociology. Exposure to violence in adolescence
• Dr. Audrey Light, Department of Economics. Computer use and child outcomes
• Dr. Kendra McSweeney, Department of Geography. Indigenous pronatalism in Latin America
• Dr. Patricia Reagan, Department of Economics and Dr. Pamela Salsberry, Department of Nursing. Health and Latinos in US-Mexico border