The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative is an urgent, cross-cutting NIH effort to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk.

Strategic Framework

The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative Strategic Framework includes input from the scientific and stakeholder communities. The Framework provides the initial planning of how the NIH community will address climate change and health.

View the Strategic Framework

Strategic Framework Fact Sheet

Impact of Climate Change on Human Health Infographic

Research Needed for Reducing Health Risks Fact Sheet

Funding and Career Opportunities

Exploratory Grants for Climate Change and Health Research Center Development (P20 Clinical Trial Optional)
RFA-ES-23-007
Available Due Dates: May 01, 2023; November 07, 2023
Expiration Date: Nov 8, 2023

This program will support the development of an innovative research environment to foster and sustain a transdisciplinary program of fundamental and applied research to explore the complex impacts of climate change on health and to develop action-oriented strategies that protect health and build resiliency at the individual, community, national and global levels.

• Resources and partnership information to assist in developing robust and relevant research projects and core activities:
  https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/climatechange/research_program/p20/
• NIH will hold an informational webinar/Q&A session March 24*, from 1:00pm-3:00pm EDT on Zoom. (*Note the change of date from April 5 to March 24)
  Registration required at: https://nih.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN__5Qj2le4SxqHg9QrCMkcew

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Climate Change and Health Administrative Supplements
NOT-HD-23-006
First Available Due Date: May 08, 2023
Expiration Date: May 09, 2023

As part of the NIH-wide Climate Change and Health Initiative, this NOSI invites applications to supplement active NIH awards to seed new activities and partnerships in climate change and health (CCH) research and research training. Applications for supplements to grants that are not currently focused on CCH but wish to include CCH measures and outcomes within the scope of their current research and training specific aims are encouraged.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Climate Change and Health
NOT-ES-22-006
First Available Due Date: July 08, 2022
Expiration Date: May 08, 2025
As part of an NIH-wide Climate Change and Health Initiative, this NOSI encourages applications that address the impact of climate change on health and well-being over the life course, including the health implications of climate change in the United States and globally.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Innovative Technologies for Research on Climate Change and Human Health Small Business Technology Transfer (R41/R42 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOT-ES-22-009
First Available Due Date: September 5, 2022
Expiration Date: April 6, 2023
NOSI to develop or adapt practical technologies for capturing the effects of climate change and extreme weather events on human health and to reduce the health threats posed by climate change across the lifespan.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Innovative Technologies for Research on Climate Change and Human Health Small Business Innovation Research (R43/R44 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOT -ES-22-010
First Available Due Date: September 5, 2022
Expiration Date: April 6, 2023
NOSI to develop or adapt practical technologies for capturing the effects of climate change and extreme weather events on human health and to reduce the health threats posed by climate change across the lifespan.

Past Funding Opportunities

Alliance for Community Engagement – Climate and Health Awards

The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative has provided funding to establish four sites as part of the Alliance for Community Engagement on Climate and Health (ACE-CH).  The alliance will work to promote sustainable strategies that address the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities, while emphasizing health equity.

The ACE-CH will focus on community-engaged research, capacity building, and outreach opportunities where factors associated with social determinants of health yield residents disproportionately affected by the health impacts of climate change.

The ACE-CH will model the successful NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) program led by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).  The new grants for ACE-CH will be administered by NHLBI.  Four 2-year awards will enable work to begin in March 2023.

Award Locations

• University of Alaska Fairbanks | Alaska Alliance for Community Engagement – Climate and Health (AK ACE-CH)
  • Principal Investigator: Stacy Rasmus
    The AK ACE-CH Hub will focus on Indigenous knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about climate change and its impacts on health and well-being in Alaska. The hub will develop and pilot-test strategies to assess multi-level risk and resilience factors in rural Alaska Native communities in two highly impacted regions of the state.
• University of Colorado School of Public Health | Mountain West ACE-CH Hub: Climate Change Engagement Platform to Support Resilient Rural and Urban Communities
  • Principal Investigator: Katherine Dickinson
    The Mountain West ACE-CH hub will support climate change resilience among economically disadvantaged populations, communities of color, immigrants, and some occupational groups experiencing disproportionate impact in both urban and rural communities near Denver. The hub will develop scientifically rigorous surveys to measure climate change and air quality concerns, beliefs, behaviors, information sources, assets, and desires regarding environmental justice.
• University of Southern California | Community-driven Approaches to Environmental Justice and Health in the Face of the Climate Crisis in Southern California
  • Principal Investigator: Jill Johnston
    The University of Southern California hub will focus on community-driven approaches to environmental justice and health among families, immigrants, people of color, unhoused individuals, and elderly communities in Los Angeles and the City of Carson that are economically and socially marginalized. The hub will use spatial approaches to assess neighborhood-scale vulnerability, such as community air monitoring networks in climate justice neighborhoods. 
• Public Health Institute | Climate Health Adaptation and Resilience Mobilizing (CHARM) Lake County Project
  • Principal Investigator: Paul English
    The Public Health Institute hub will establish continuous community engagement structures with local Tribes and community-based organizations to reach American Indian Tribal communities, immigrants, and agricultural workers in Lake County, California. The hub will identify and understand health impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and heat events on disproportionately affected populations, and synthesize and apply findings to improve communication and collaboration in HABs and heat preparedness and response.

Seminar Series

NIH Institutes and Centers (IC) have joined forces to educate and inform colleagues and the public about the human health implications of climate change. This series will present webinars from different ICs highlighting work in the field of climate change while promoting transdisciplinary discussion and collaboration in this concerted effort against an extreme threat to health.

• March 17, 2023,  1:00-2:00 pm EDT – Protecting Human and Planetary Health: New Unique and Necessary Roles for Health Professionals; Register now
• February 21, 2023, 2:00 PM- 3:00 PM ET: Addressing Health Disparities and Reducing Mortality due to Non-communicable Diseases During Climate-induced Disasters; Registration now Open via NCI
• October 25, 2022, 10am-11am EDT- Climate Change and Cancer: Video
• August 16, 2022, 11am-12:30pm EDT - NIAID Mosquito Day Webinar: How will climate change impact mosquito biology and mosquito-borne diseases?
• June 22, 2022, 10am–11am EDT – Climate Change and Health: Generating Research Evidence for Action: Video
• May 13, 2022, 10am–11am EDT – A Precision Health Approach for Actionable Climate Change and Health Research: Video
• April 8, 2022, 1pm–2pm EST – Climate and Emergency Care (and Trauma) Systems: Video
• February 22, 2022, 1pm–2pm EST – Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Health: What Lies Ahead:  Video
• February 9, 2022,  12pm – 1pm EST – Why Climate Change Is a Health Threat: Video
• December 17, 2021 – Notes from the Field: Pivoting a Research Program to Climate Change: Video
• November 2, 2021 – Climate Resilience and Health Equity in Black Neighborhoods: The Case for Urban Nature: Video
• August 16, 2021 – Developing a Climate Change and Health Research Agenda for the NIH: Adaptation, Equity and Big Data: Video

NIH Climate and Health Scholars Program

NIH has selected eight established scientists with expertise in climate and health to work on the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative. This inaugural class of NIH Climate and Health Scholars will become part of the cross-cutting NIH effort to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk. The diverse group of scientists went through a competitive selection process and will begin working with NIH staff in February 2023. Each scholar is currently employed at a major university or with a research-based organization but will be hosted by an NIH Institute or Center for approximately eight months. They will work with staff across NIH to share knowledge and help build capacity for conducting climate-related and health research.

• Program Overview
• 2023 NIH Climate and Health Scholars
• NIEHS News Story: NIH welcomes inaugural class of Climate and Health Scholars

Literature Portal

Locate the most relevant scientific literature on the health implications of climate change.

Climate Change and Health Literature Portal

Participating Institutes and Centers

The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative is led by an Executive Committee comprising the Directors of seven NIH Institutes and Centers. The NIEHS Director chairs the Executive Committee and NIEHS provides the Initiative's administrative home.

Executive Committee

NIH Climate Change and Health Working Group

Aubrey Miller, M.D., NIEHS, Co-chair
Joshua Rosenthal, Ph.D., FIC, Co-chair
Gwen Collman, Ph.D., NIEHS, Strategic Advisor

Steering Committee

Related Links

• The Lancet, November 4, 2022, commentary from NIH leaders discussing new research plan on Climate and Health
• FIC Global Health Matters Newsletter September/October 2022:  NIH awards help broaden climate change research
• NIH Director’s Blog July 26, 2022: Climate Change and Health Initiative to Expand Research, Build Resiliency
• NIH Catalyst Story May 6, 2022: Why Climate Change is a Health Threat
• NIEHS News Story: Climate change spurs big new plan for health research
• November 29, 2021 National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NAEHSC) meeting to consider a NIH-wide Climate Change and Health Concept
• Dr. Collins Responds to Climate Change and Health Question at 2021 House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability