# TRAINING IN MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITION

> **NIH NIH T32** · CORNELL UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $221,184

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Since this training program was first funded 34y ago, the specific problems that confront maternal and child
nutrition (MCN) have not gone away, but rather crucial challenges continue to exist and new ones have
emerged. As a result, there remains a compelling need to understand not only how to prevent nutritional
problems in women of childbearing age and young children but also how to mitigate the effects of these
problems on the later health of both women and their children. The proposed program is significant because,
in the short term, it will fill a major gap in training in MCN and, in the long term, individuals trained by this
program should fill a major gap in producing and interpreting integrative research on MCN. We propose
to train 4 (3 predoctoral and 1 postdoctoral) trainees by leveraging the resources of the renowned graduate
program in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, one of the largest academic units devoted
to human nutrition in the country. The proposed training program will be led by a multi-PD group composed of
four faculty members in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University: Drs K.M. Rasmussen, L.
Bellows, J. Finkelstein, and J. Hoddinott. Program oversight will be provided by an External Advisory
Committee. Trainees will be mentored by a total of 14 trainers, who have active research programs as well as
an exemplary training record. The co-trainers have differing yet complementary skills in a wide range of
disciplines related to MCN as well as a long history of collaboration with one another in both training and
research. Trainees will complete a core curriculum consisting of 3 graduate-level courses: Topics in Maternal
and Child Nutrition, Grant Writing, and Translational Research and Evidence-based Policy and Practice in
Nutrition. These courses will be supplemented by the highly valued weekly meeting of the MCN Research
Forum as well as training in the responsible conduct of research and rigor and reproducibility in research. Use
of an Individual Development Plan along with our innovative Annual Collaborative Project will further
enhance the trainees’ career and leadership development as well as their resilience in the face of a
changing environment for research. Excellent facilities are available in the Division for the proposed program,
including well-equipped laboratories, animal facilities, an outpatient metabolic unit, a clinical chemistry
laboratory, and extensive support for statistical computing. Trainees will also have access to shared research
facilities throughout the campus and academic centers and institutes that focus on subjects that range from
vertebrate genomics to food and nutrition policy. As a result of the proposed program,pre- and postdoctoral
trainees will be able to identify the most important problems in MCN, address them with their research, and
effectively translate the results of their research into novel policies and appropria...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10846767
- **Project number:** 5T32HD087137-08
- **Recipient organization:** CORNELL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Laura Bellows
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $221,184
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-05-01 → 2027-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10846767

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10846767, TRAINING IN MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITION (5T32HD087137-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10846767. Licensed CC0.

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