Posted on July 1, 2021

RADx-UP Rapid Research Pilot Program Announces First Awardees

07.01.2021

The RADx-UP Rapid Research Pilot Program announces its inaugural slate of awardees (pending final NIH approvals). The Rapid Research Pilot Program is open to universities and other non-profits, community organizations and industry both within and outside the RADx-UP network and supports the implementation of novel or emerging testing technologies in communities. Eight applications were awarded up to $200,000 to evaluate the feasibility of implementing emerging COVID-19 testing technologies in communities most impacted by COVID-19.

Learn more about the first eight CDCC Rapid Research Pilot Program awardees:

“Partnering with a Major Immigrant Community to Reduce Barriers to COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Uptake” is led by Mark VanLandingham of Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine’s Center for Study of Displaced Populations in Louisiana. The project will partner with Vietnamese communities in New Orleans to increase testing and vaccination rates. This project will ensure culturally-appropriate materials and counseling, as well as monitor infections for new variants of the virus.

“Facilitating COVID-19 At-Home Collection Testing among Korean American Families through Korean Schools in Northern California” is led by JiWon Choi of the University of California San Francisco. The project will hand out at-home test kits to students, families, and staff at Korean Schools of Northern California, as well as collect them and study whether this approach works to increase testing among Korean American families.

Application of NOVEL RT-LAMP Assay for Direct Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Saliva” led by Nahed Ismail out of the University of Illinois at Chicago serves medically-underserved, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-national communities in Chicago, Illinois. Their study will test people in areas where there are currently “testing deserts.” This will result in earlier detection and earlier linkage to care. The team hopes to increase scientific knowledge about what works and what doesn’t work to test and restest in these environments.

SHARE

Twitter

Follow us on Twitter for the latest news and updates.

media_orange

Media Archive

This is a short description of the Media Archive subsection of the site.

Publications

Explore our dashboard of recent RADx-UP scholarship.

“Community Health Worker Led COVID-19 Education and Rapid Antigen Testing for People Experiencing Homelessness” is led by Natalia Rodriguez at Purdue University. The project will study how well COVID-19 rapid antigen tests work when delivered by a community health worker to people experiencing homelessness in a homeless shelter in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. The team will learn how rapid testing affects daily activities to design a better response in the future.

 

The Kraft Community Health Center's mobile testing and vaccination van and outreach staff.
The Kraft Community Health Center's mobile testing and vaccination van and outreach staff

“Implementation and Evaluation of Point of Care COVID Diagnostics for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in Revere” is led by Priya S. Gupta at the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. The project works within a select neighborhood in Revere, Massachusetts that has a high rate of people who are experiencing homelessness. The team will create a mobile street outreach program using health promoters to test for COVID-19. This project will also set up mobile testing sites alongside existing high foot-trafficked areas such as food pantries.

“Facilitators and barriers for COVID-19 testing uptake and its impact on vaccine uptake in a rural, diverse, essential workplace” led by Sara Assaf of the University of New Mexico. The project gives miners located in rural New Mexico next to the Navajo Nation free tests, supportive workplace policies, and incentives for getting vaccinated in an effort to eliminate inequities experienced by essential workers during the pandemic. This project hopes to learn what works and what doesn’t work to keep people safe and stop the spread of the virus as well as inform public policy in the future to keep essential workplaces open safely.

“Communities Fighting COVID @Home” is led by Corinne McDaniels-Davidson from San Diego State University. The project will study if school-based distribution of rapid at-home testing in households in south San Diego County, California, primarily made up of LatinX and low-income families, can stop the spread of the virus in the school system. This project will also identify what resources work to simplify the process of self-testing. Finally, it will look at whether confidence and trust in the school district and comfort with in-person learning differ between unvaccinated parents and guardians who opt-in to testing and those who decline at-home testing.

“Apoyo (Support) for Latin American Asylum-Seekers (ALAS): A Pilot Study to Assess Feasibility and Acceptability of a Promotora-Led COVID-19 Testing Intervention” is led by Susan Pepin of Arizona State University. ALAS is a community partnership that will deliver promotora-led COVID-19 testing for Latin American asylum-seekers from the southern border and who live in Maricopa County in Arizona. The project will adapt an existing promotora-led testing and follow-up care strategy by addressing the unique barriers for asylum-seekers who are at greater risk of exposure due to crowded living conditions, complex medical and mental health concerns, language and health care access barriers in addition to fear of deportation and distrust.

Congratulations to all awardees and thank you to all who took the time to apply. The next application deadline for these awards is December 10. Learn more information about the Rapid Research Pilot Program and how to apply.