NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative

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.

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What's New

Call for proposals: Case studies to advance research on climate change adaptation strategies and their impact on public health. Researchers, practitioners, and implementers from any country are encouraged to submit proposals by October 16, 2023.

Research Coordinating Center Awarded — The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative has awarded a three-year grant to Boston University School of Public Health and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to serve as the Research Coordinating Center for this NIH-wide effort to reduce the health impacts of climate change. Read more.

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). Read more.

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 Opportunities

Graphic cog-wheel display of the strategic framework.

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.

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.

Additional NIH Funding Related to Climate and Health

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
    • Principal Investigator: Karsten Hueffer 
      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
    • Principal Investigator: Katherine James 
      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.

  • September 6, 2023, 2:00-3:00 p.m., EDT - Toward Building an Aging and Climate Resilient Society: Older Adults’ Vulnerability and Resilience to Disasters; Register
  • August 16, 2023, 2:00-3:00 p.m., EDT - Empower Women in Rural India; Video
  • July 20, 2023, 2:00-3:00 p.m., EDT - Climate Change and Health Disparities From the Inside Out: Weatherizing Homes to Adapt to and Mitigate Climate Change; Video
  • June 7, 2023, 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT - Considerations of Historical Climate Data and Exposure Metrics for Climate-Health Research; Video
  • May 15, 2023, Noon – 1 p.m. EDT - Disasters, and Food Security: Impacts and Disparities; Video
  • May 3, 2023, 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT - Climate Change Impacts on Neglected Tropical Diseases; Video
  • April 26, 2023, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EDT - Health Consequences of Climate Change With a Lens on Social Determinants of Health; Video
  • March 17, 2023, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT – Protecting Human and Planetary Health: New Unique and Necessary Roles for Health Professionals; Video
  • 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; Video

Past Seminar Series

NIH Climate and Health Scholars Program

Pictures of the eight scientists selected to be part of the NIH Scholars and Health Program.

The NIH Climate and Health Scholars Program is now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 Program.

In early 2023, NIH 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 became 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 began working with NIH staff in February 2023. Each scholar is currently employed at a major university or with a research-based organization but is hosted by an NIH Institute or Center. They work with staff across NIH to share knowledge and help build capacity for conducting climate-related and health research. The new class of scholars will begin this fall.

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

Andrew Bremer
Chief, Pediatric Growth and Nutrition Branch (PGNB)
NIH/NICHD
andrew.bremer@nih.gov

Larry Fine
NIH/NHLBI
finel@nhlbi.nih.gov

B.F. ‘Lee’ Hall
Chief, Parasitology and International Programs Branch
NIH/NIAID
lhall@niaid.nih.gov

Flora Katz
Director, Division of International Training and Research;
NIH/FIC
katzf@mail.nih.gov

Megan Kinnane
Senior Advisor to the Director;
NIH/NIMH
megan.kinnane@nih.gov

Aubrey Miller
Senior Medical Advisor
NIH/NIEHS
miller.aubrey@nih.gov

Larissa Avilés-Santa, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Division of Clinical and Health Services Research
NIH/NIMHD
avilessantal@nih.gov

Louise Rosenbaum
Science Policy Analyst;
NIH/NINR
rosenbauml@mail.nih.gov

Joshua Rosenthal
Senior Scientist;
Division of Epidemiology and Population Studies
NIH/FIC
joshua.rosenthal@nih.gov

Claudia Thompson
Chief, Population Health Branch;
Division of Extramural Research and Training;
NIH/NIEHS
thompso1@niehs.nih.gov

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