Our staff at the Center on Society and Health recently submitted two proposals to the Knight Foundation as part of their Knight News Challenge. The challenge takes proposals from media innovators and community organizations and awards grants for projects. The challenge awards winners a share of $5 million in funding if their projects are selected. The Center has submitted two different proposals for this challenge, each tying back to the Center’s purpose in addressing health issues in communities.

In its first entry, “Alerting the American Public to Data on the U.S. Health Disadvantage,” the Center proposes a two-year comprehensive communications campaign to raise awareness about growing health concerns in communities throughout the United States. The plan includes using social media to inform and engage the public; establishing a free online research tool;  producing radio PSA’s; and more. The goal of this project is to better inform the American public of the U.S. health disadvantage and address factors outside the clinic that affect health.

In its second entry, “What matters most to improve the health of communities? Using supercomputers to find the answer,” the Center proposes using powerful supercomputers to merge large collections of data regarding health care, individual risk factors, and other factors related to public health in order to uncover previously unidentified factors impacting health. If awarded, the Center plans to partner with the University of California-San Diego Division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology as well as the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas to carry out the collection and analysis of public health data. Targeted dissemination of findings will enable communities to apply the information and make thoughtful decisions about how best to improve the health of its residents.

Over the next few weeks, The Knight Foundation will begin to respond and notify those who submitted proposals if there are any comments or revisions to be made. The winners will be announced on January 15, 2014.