Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research Announced

New York, NY (July 2002) -- Jeffrey A. Fagan, Professor of Law and Public Health at Columbia University, is among the recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) annual Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research for his project on "Social Contagion of Adolescent Violence".

Nine grants totaling $2.4 million were awarded last month to 13 scholars from universities across the country. A 12-member national advisory committee and RWJF representatives selected the new recipients from a field of 232 applications.

The national RWJF Investigator Awards program, administered by Rutgers' Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, funds approximately 10 research initiatives annually. Projects must develop, interpret or substantially advance ideas or knowledge that can improve health or health care policy in the United States. Investigators can receive up to $275,000 to fund research over three years.

The RWJF Investigator Awards program was created in 1992 and has granted $20.8 million to support 83 projects involving 103 investigators. RWJF has committed more than $32 million to the program. Details on the projects are available on the Investigator Awards Web site .

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation , based in Princeton, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grant making in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

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