This $999,894 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate will fund research at Lehigh University from August 2022 to January 2024 under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program (CFDA 47.075).
The grant supports four interlinked research thrusts to advance understanding of pandemic dynamics in indigenous communities and improve response. Thrust I will establish community beliefs regarding disease and prevention using participatory research. Thrust II will predict virus spillover and spread through computational modeling. Thrust III will develop point-of-care sensing devices to enhance testing in underserved populations. Thrust IV will investigate virus-host interactions and differentiators of infection. Outcomes aim to translate findings to broader pandemic understanding and develop engineering, education, policy and biological solutions addressing higher mortality rates among indigenous groups.