The Center for Health Behavior Research & Innovation (CHB) in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) has awarded its first round of competitive grants for interdisciplinary and cross-institutional health and behavioral science research projects.

A total of $33,000 in seed funding has been awarded to six separate projects through the CHB Collaborative Pilot Grant Program and the CHB/IVMF SU + VA Collaboration Pilot Grant Program. The grants are intended to catalyze cross-university collaboration and position investigators for larger external grant submissions.

“The selected proposals span researchers from six Syracuse University colleges and institutes and eight departments, schools and centers, truly reflecting broad institutional engagement and collaboration,” says Joseph Ditre, director of the CHB and professor in the Department of Psychology in A&S. “The grants also illustrate CHB’s strategic role in seeding interdisciplinary research, strengthening university-Veterans Affairs partnerships, accelerating development of competitive external grant submissions and advancing impactful work across health and behavioral science domains.”

Projects include research on intimate partner violence among veterans, alcohol reduction messaging in Veterans Affairs primary care, heart rate training for entrepreneurs, healthy eating tools for young children, AI support readiness for family caregivers and virtual reality-based voice therapy for pre-service (student) teachers.

Several external partners are also included. Those projects involve researchers at Syracuse Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, VA Center for Integrated Healthcare, VA Office of Research and Development and VA Connecticut Healthcare System, as well as Columbia University’s Department of Clinical Psychiatry and industry partner Quannet Health.

Pilot funds were provided to CHB by the College of Arts and Sciences with direct support from Dean Behzad Mortazavi, Ditre says. The funds can be used for participant compensation, core facility access, data acquisition, study materials, software and other costs of launching new collaborative research. Projects begin this month and cover a 12-month period.

Researchers receiving grants and their projects are:

Understanding and Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Among Veterans: A Mixed Methods Study of Risk Factors, Experiences and Treatment Preferences

• Michelle Zaso, assistant professor of psychology, A&S
• Rachael Riniolo, clinical psychology postdoctoral fellow, VA Center for Integrated Healthcare, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Nudge Messaging to Promote Alcohol-Related Behavior Change Among Veterans in Primary Care

• Dezarie Moskal, research assistant professor, CHB/IVMF and clinical research program director, VA Center for Integrated Healthcare
• Stephen Maisto, research professor and professor emeritus of psychology, A&S

Family Caregiver Well-Being and Readiness for AI-Based Support

• Michiko Ueda-Ballmer, associate professor of public administration and international affairs and senior research associate, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Jun Li, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs and faculty associate, Aging Studies Institute, Maxwell School

Virtual Reality-Based Voice Therapy for Pre-Service Teachers: Initial Design of a VR Voice Intervention

• Charles Nudelman, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders, A&S
• Ralf Schneider, associate professor of industrial and interaction design, School of Design, College of Visual and Performing Arts

A Sweet Texts Add-On to Identify Tailoring Variables and Decision Points for Reducing Energy-Dense Food Intake in Preschool Children

• Maryam Yuhas, assistant professor of nutrition and food studies, Falk College of Sport
• Katie Kidwell, assistant professor of psychology, A&S

Physiological Self-Regulation as a Foundation of Entrepreneurial Functioning

• Arielle Newman, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, Whitman School of Management
• Jeff Gish, associate professor of entrepreneurship and academic director of the Orange Business Angel Network, Whitman School