What is required of Healthy Eating Research grantees?

• Grantees will be expected to meet the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's requirements for the submission of annual and final narrative reports and financial reports. In addition, grantees are required to submit semi-annual narrative reports to the University of Minnesota national program office (NPO) and respond to periodic surveys and other communications sent from the NPO.

• Grantees also will be expected to participate in a community of practice, facilitated by the Healthy Eating Research NPO at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, directed by Mary Story, PhD, RD. The community of practice will provide opportunities for grantees who face common challenges to share their knowledge and solutions. Activities will include conference calls, working groups and online collaboration, as well as an annual grantee meeting. The Healthy Eating Research 6th Annual Grantee Meeting will be in February 2012.

• Grantees also will be required to participate in an evaluation of the Healthy Eating Research program. The Foundation is undertaking an overall evaluation of the Healthy Eating Research program, which focuses on key questions about the program's overall contributions to informing the policy debate and guiding the design of effective policy and environmental solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic. All grantees, as a condition of accepting RWJF Healthy Eating Research grant funds, will be required to participate in this evaluation. As a grantee, your involvement in the actual evaluation will be minimal and may include periodic interviews with the independent research firm conducting the evaluation, participation in Web-based surveys, and requests via a phone call and/or e-mail for more detailed information about your study findings (e.g., publications generated from the study, other dissemination strategies, policy impact).