New Project Teams Will Tackle Research Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic
July 21, 2020
In a matter of months, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged nearly every institution and caused the world community to alter long-held ways of living. There is no doubt that the impact of this pandemic will be profound and lasting.
Thirteen new Bass Connections project teams starting this fall will tackle research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications will open on July 27. The deadline to apply is July 31 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Please follow the links below for more information on each project team and how to apply. Please note that students who are already on a project team for 2020-2021 are not eligible to apply.
Assessing an Innovative Community-based Response to COVID-19 in Rural North Carolina
This project team will seek to improve health outcomes in an underserved rural community by integrating reverse innovation and public-private community partnerships to develop a community-based response network and health engagement system.
Community-based Testing and Primary Care to Mitigate COVID-19 Transmission
This project team will address COVID-19 inequities in Durham County by strengthening collaboration between clinical, policy and community partners and assessing long-term sustainability.
Coping with COVID-19: Using Behavioral Science and Digital Health to Promote Healthy Families
This project team will help address the need for feasible, scalable interventions to strengthen family relationships in low-resource settings during this pandemic. Team members will engage in two primary projects – one domestic and one global – to adapt and pilot evidence-based intervention strategies for virtual delivery in North Carolina, Kenya and India.
This project team will investigate the challenges that the coronavirus outbreak poses to democratic electoral processes related to voter turnout and voting rights.
Equity and Efficiency of Using Wearables Data for COVID-19 Monitoring
This project team will improve and expand the CovIdentify study by designing a new database system suitable for large-scale data analysis and recruiting members from underserved populations to participate in the study.
The Good That Comes From Bad Dreams
This project team will test the hypothesis that inducing dream content related to COVID-19 motivates prosocial behavior to a greater extent than positive or neutral dream content.
Impact of Face Covering on Patient Communication and Health Outcomes
This project team will evaluate the impact of mandatory face mask use by providers, clinical staff and patients on communication and health outcomes in the outpatient setting.
Implementing Electronic Symptom Screening for Telehealth Visits
This project team will develop a new workflow to integrate and assess the electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) tool into telehealth visits at the Duke Cancer Institute.
Improving Food Security to Increase Resiliency to COVID-19 for Latinx Populations
This project team will bring together stakeholders from the healthcare, food, environmental and racial justice spaces to develop interventions that address food security in the Latinx community and encompass multifaceted aspects of patient health that expand beyond the current medical, in-clinic perspective.
This project team will investigate the lived experiences of North Carolinians with disabilities and their families across different COVID-19 phases in order to make policy and practice recommendations.
Mapping WASH and COVID-19 in the Middle East & North Africa
This project team will examine how different communities and humanitarian actors in conflict-affected countries in the Middle East and North Africa are responding to the pandemic and expanding access to water and sanitation.
Privacy Implications of COVID-19 Contact Tracing
This project team will analyze current approaches to the integration of contact tracing technologies with person-to-person contact tracking used by U.S. states and countries around the world.
Sex and Contraception Among College & Graduate Students During COVID-19
This project team will examine sexual activity, sexually transmitted infection awareness and prevention, and contraceptive use and access among undergraduate, graduate and professional students in North Carolina before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why COVID-19 Projects?
These 13 project teams are the result of a special call for proposals related to the COVID-19 pandemic that was announced in partnership with the Margolis Center for Health Policy in May 2020. While the five interdisciplinary themes of Bass Connections support a broad range of research related to persistent societal challenges, these themes are not all-encompassing, and we recognize the need to respond nimbly to new challenges confronting society. As a result, in 2018, Bass Connections launched its first “pop-up theme,” focused on hurricane recovery and resilience with a specific focus on the local impacts of Hurricane Florence. In 2019, a second pop-up theme featured teams examining the social, political and economic issues related to immigration. The goal of this third pop-up theme is to support teams examining the complex issues and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wondering About Summer Recruitment for 2020-2021 Project Teams?
In addition to the 13 new project teams related to the COVID-19 pandemic, several 2020-2021 project teams will begin recruiting additional student team members on July 27. Students may apply to up to three teams using the online application link at the bottom of each project team page. The deadline to apply is July 31 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Learn More
- Check out how project teams work.
- Consult our Student FAQs.
- Learn about the project team experience through stories from students.