The Jeffress Trust recognizes that inequities have an impact on one’s ability to lead a healthy life. To achieve health equity, it is necessary to remove obstacles to health – such as racial discrimination, poverty, and deep power imbalances – and their consequences, including lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.
Since its founding, the Jeffress Memorial Trust has been a steadfast benefactor in support of scientists and research across the state of Virginia supporting mathematical modeling/simulations and analytics in bioinformatics, astrophysics, mathematical biology, drug development, and material science. To further the mission of the Jeffress Trust to benefit the people of Virginia, the program was changed in 2022 to the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Research Advancing Health Equity.
The program focuses on research addressing the root causes of and systemic barriers to health equity for the state of Virginia. The shift in funding priority was made after an intensive landscape assessment of the health needs and funding initiatives available to Virginia. With its historic focus on supporting the advancement of Virginia and the work of its constituents, the goals of the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Research Advancing Health Equity is to further leverage the strengths of Virginia communities, organizations, and institutions in continuing to help its residents achieve optimal health. The Program will distribute funding to support research activities in Policy, Systems, and Environmental change strategies (PSE strategies) Analysis, Program/Practice Analysis, and General Research through the below Award mechanisms:
- Partnership/Collaborative Establishment Awards: Two-year $150,000 awards supporting the development and establishment of collaborative research activities to advance health equity
- Research Awards (open to previous Partnership/Collaborative Establishment Awardees only): Three-year $600,000 awards supporting established collaborative research consortiums that seek to advance health equity
Eligibility Criteria
Virginia-based non-profit 501(c)3 organizations and municipalities are eligible to submit ideas to the Jeffress Trust Program. See 2025 Application Guidelines for full criteria.