WEBINAR
Watch the replay of our informational webinar to learn more!
35 minute webinar replay
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Fitbit and Fitabase are announcing the availability of products, services and expertise to research teams investigating novel and promising approaches to health disparities research. The goals of the program are to support underrepresented early career researchers who are actively investigating health disparities while aiming to improve health outcomes in underserved populations. By putting additional resources in the hands of health disparities investigators and encouraging wearable research in the field, we hope to generate new evidence and methods for addressing health disparities while building trust in communities often absent from human health research.
Item |
Date |
Open Call Program Announcement | Wednesday, April 14, 2021 |
Informational Webinar | Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 11am PST |
Stage 1 Application: Letter of Intent due date | Friday, May 28, 2021, 5pm PST |
Anticipated Notice of Invitation to Full Application Process | Beginning on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 |
Stage 2: Full Application due date (invite only) | Friday, July 16, 2021, 5pm PST |
Anticipated Award Announcement | Wednesday, August 4, 2021 |
Anticipated Performance Period | August 2021 – December 2022 |
Awards will be tailored to the research and population needs described in the application and may range in size and scope. The number of projects supported will depend upon the applications received, with a total commitment of up to $500,000* in Fitbit and Fitabase products and services. While we will aim to award the most promising projects with the greatest potential impact, we encourage research projects of all sizes to submit a letter of intent.
Available products and services:
*This is a supplemental award and does not include a monetary contribution.
**Fitbit can make a custom online storefront available to researchers who would like to enable participants to redeem a fully subsidized device and have it shipped to a location of their choice. If your study would benefit from this capability, please include an additional $7 for each device.
***All awardees will receive access to Fitabase’s platform services and an estimate of these costs does not need to be included in Letters of Intent or subsequent application details.
Here are some examples of potential scenarios for how Fitbit products and services could be utilized. Each applicant should tailor their letter of intent to their specific study needs.
Example A
Researchers need Fitbit Sense smartwatches and a 12-month membership to Health Coaching for 100 study participants.
Fitbit Sense 100 x $299.95 = $29,995
Fitbit Health Coaching 100 x $54.99 x 12 months = $65,988
Total to include in proposal: $95,983
Example B
Researchers need Inspire 2 trackers and Aria Air scales for 1,000 study participants.
Fitbit Inspire 2 1,000 x $99.95 = $99,950
Fitbit Aria 1,000 x $49.95 = $49,950
Total to include in proposal: $149,900
Example C
Researchers need Charge 4 trackers, Aria Air scales and a 12-month membership to Health Coaching for 500 study participants.
Fitbit Charge 4 Tracker 500 x $149.95 = $74,975
Fitbit Aria Air Scale 500 x $49.95 = $24,975
Fitbit Health Coaching 500 x $54.99 x 12 months = $329,940
Total to include in proposal: $429,890
We hosted an informational webinar on Wednesday, April 28th. Couldn’t make it to the webinar? Watch it on demand here.
You can also learn more from the following online resources:
Applicants should | Applicants should not |
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Our goal is to make the application process as streamlined as possible to reduce burden to interested investigators and their teams. In the first stage, applicants are invited to submit an electronic letter of intent (“Letters of Intent”) describing their research needs for devices and services. Once Letters of Intent are reviewed, we will invite the most promising to submit a full application as part of the second stage (“Full Applications”). Following a review of the Full Applications, we will announce one or more awards.
We want to be mindful of the resources your organization spends on preparing for Fitbit’s Health Equity Research Initiative. Through a two-stage application process, we hope to save you time and communicate the status of your potential for an award earlier.
No. Fitbit and Fitabase will not treat your Letter of Intent, Full Application or accompanying materials as confidential or proprietary, and the details of those may be shared with internal or external experts to evaluate your proposal. You must not submit any proprietary or confidential information in your Letter of Intent, Full Application or accompanying materials. If your organization is selected to receive products or services, the information related to your project may be made available to the public.
Fitbit has always been committed to protecting consumer privacy, putting users in control of their personal data, and working hard to keep your data safe. Organizations who receive an award under this initiative are required to comply with our Research Pledge, which specifies commitments we require from researchers to help protect and respect participants in research studies.
Your and your organization’s information, including any personal information in your letter of intent, application or related materials (such as name, mailing address, phone number, and email address), may be processed, stored, shared or otherwise used by Fitbit and Fitabase within the context of the application review process and provision of the products and services by Fitbit and Fitabase awarded in support of the initiative. Any such information processing, storing, sharing or use will be done so by Fitbit in accordance with its privacy policy and by Fitabase in accordance with its privacy policy.
We believe that projects supported by this program should be able to benefit everyone. If you are selected to receive products or services, a standard giveaway agreement will require that any intellectual property created by you in connection with your project be made available to the public for free under a permissive open source license.
Full application terms can be found here.
Letters of Intent will be evaluated across four categories:
Full Applications by invitation should include the following:
Institutions, non-profit organizations and fiscal sponsors can submit multiple letters of intent for different studies, but investigators should only submit one Letter of Intent.
We are unable to provide explanations for unsupported projects.
We hope to continue to make Fitbit’s Health Equity Research Initiative available again, but have not made a formal decision and may make changes based on program learnings.
We will work closely with awardees to reasonably support study design along with device and services enrollment.
We will not provide financial, analytic or authorship support.