Seed Grants Program

Supporting innovative ideas. Strengthening collaboration. Advancing better health.

Seed Grant Program Summary

The Humana Integrated Health Systems Sciences Institute’s Seed Grant Program supports early-stage research and practice innovations that advance value-based care, strengthen interprofessional collaboration, and improve population and community health.

The program provides up to $10,000 per project for initiatives lasting 9–12 months, helping early-career faculty develop and test promising ideas, generate actionable findings, and build a foundation for future external funding.

Program Priorities

Projects must align with one or more of the Institute’s core pillars:

Advancing Value-Based Care: Improving health outcomes while reducing unnecessary costs and complexity.
Strengthening Interprofessional Care: Bringing disciplines together to improve care delivery, coordination, and chronic disease prevention and management.
Innovation and Measurable Impact: Testing practical solutions with clear measures of clinical, operational, educational, or community impact.

Who Can Apply?

Faculty from any discipline are eligible. Interdisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged, with priority given to proposals involving two or more professions or departments. Projects may also engage students and trainees in meaningful learning and research roles.

Funding may support personnel effort, student participation, supplies, data and analytic tools, stakeholder engagement, and evaluation activities.

2026 Funding Cycle

Applications for the inaugural cycle closed on July 1, 2026, with projects scheduled to begin in Fall 2026.

Questions?

For questions about the program, contact humana-institute@uh.edu.

2026 Seed Grant Projects

Vision screenings with Integrated Systems for Interprofessional Outreach and Navigation (VISION)

The VISION project will transform an existing University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) Community Vision Screening Program into an interprofessional preventive care model through collaboration with the University of Houston College of Nursing (UHCON) and the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work (UH GCSW). Faculty-supervised teams of optometry, nursing, and social work students will collaboratively provide vision screening, blood pressure screening, diabetes risk assessment, social needs assessment, and coordinated referral navigation. The project will evaluate whether integrating chronic disease screening and referral navigation into an established community vision screening program improves linkage to comprehensive eye care and primary care among individuals experiencing homelessness. Outcomes will include referral completion, comprehensive eye examination and primary care follow-up, implementation feasibility, and student interprofessional learning.

Stress, Mental Health, and Barriers to Well-Being Among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

This project seeks to understand the lived experiences of individuals experiencing homelessness in Houston, with a focus on stress, mental well-being, healthcare access, and barriers to medication adherence. Dr. Samina and her team are using a mixed-methods approach, combining validated psychometric instruments (PSS, PHQ-9, and GAD-7) with narrative and participatory community-based approaches to better understand stress exposure, mental health vulnerability, and healthcare barriers, within the unhoused Houston community. The long-term goal is to generate foundational data that can support development of community centered interventions focused on stress reduction, mental health awareness, resilience building, and improved healthcare engagement among vulnerable populations.

Technology and Older Adults

Health technology, such as patient portals, wearable trackers, and remote patient monitoring show great promise to improve health outcomes in older adults, yet adoption remains low. Although barriers such as security concerns, internet access and self-efficacy are well-known, there are few pragmatic solutions to effectively address these issues. Community health workers (CHWs) play increasingly important roles in the healthcare team, acting as health educators and linking patients to resources, yet may be an underutilized resource in improving technological literacy and usage. In this research proposal, we aim to: (1) identify themes and action items centered around evidence-based facilitators and barriers to adopting technology amongst a diverse group of Medicare Advantage patients; (2) use these findings to inform the development of an educational intervention to address these factors; and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention delivered by CHWs on behavioral intent. Findings from this study can be applied for broader implementation of other technological interventions amongst older adults.

View additional project details »

Using AI to Improve Pain Assessment in Sickle Cell Disease

This project evaluates an AI-guided conversational tool to improve how pain is assessed in adults living with sickle cell disease (SCD). Because SCD pain is complex and often inadequately captured by traditional paper questionnaires, the study examines whether a conversational, empathetic, and patient-centered digital platform (Redeem Care PRO) can collect more complete, reliable, and meaningful patient-reported outcomes. Dr. Ononogbu and her team are comparing AI-based pain assessments with standard paper surveys while also evaluating patient comfort, trust, and perceived empathy. Findings will help determine whether conversational AI can enhance engagement, reduce patient burden, and support more equitable, scalable, and patient-centered approaches to pain measurement in SCD, ultimately strengthening both clinical care and research.