Federal Funding
Since its establishment in 2009, the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics has been awarded more than $94 million in government grants to support work that aims to measurably improve value in health nationwide and around the world. These grants contribute to the support that allows researchers to pursue innovative solutions to today’s pressing healthcare challenges and to provide evidence for policies with impact far into the future. Below are four research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health housed at the Schaeffer Center.
NIH-Funded Centers
National Institute on Aging: USC Resource Center for Aging and Dementia Research (USC RCAD)
Since 2012, the USC Resource Center for Aging and Dementia Research (USC RCAD) has supported and mentored early-stage scientists to advance aging and dementia research. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, USC RCAD focuses pathways by which social, behavioral and economic factors, and health systems affect risk of AD/ADRD, and affect the health, health care and economic outcomes of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The program is led by Julie Zissimopoulos, Jennifer Ailshire and Emma Aguila.
National Institute on Aging: USC-Yale Roybal Center for Behavioral Interventions in Aging
The USC-Yale Roybal Center for Behavioral Interventions in Aging conducts research that advances healthy aging for older adults who are economically insecure, culturally diverse, and historically under-served. The Roybal Center develops and tests interventions based on insights from behavioral science to promote healthy aging. It aims to strengthen the ability of clinicians to choose or recommend the safest and most effective treatments for their patients using behavioral insights—nudges— that are developed through the center. Ultimately, the Roybal Center will address some of the country’s most pressing population health concerns that are driven by overuse of medical services and underuse of comparatively effective services. It is led by Jason Doctor and Daniella Meeker and funded through a 5-year, $5.6 million dollar grant from NIH awarded in 2024.
National Institute on Aging: Center for Advancing Sociodemographic and Economic Study of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (CeASES ADRD)
Led by Julie Zissimopoulos, the Center for Advancing Sociodemographic and Economic Study of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (CeASES ADRD) is an interdisciplinary center launched by the Schaeffer Center with experts from USC, Stanford and the University of Texas, Austin. It was established in 2020 with a $4.1 million grant from the National Institute on Aging.
CeASES ADRD is working to advance innovative social science research on dementia, increase knowledge and technological capacity, and build a diverse, global network of social science researchers in the field. Research priorities of the program include quantifying the health, social and economic costs of ADRD, assessing how physician and individual behaviors impact dementia risk, analyzing the role of health systems and payment models on care and modeling the consequences of an aging society.
National Institute on Drug Abuse: RAND-USC Schaeffer Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC)
The RAND-USC Schaeffer Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC), led by Rosalie Liccardo Pacula and Bradley Stein, is playing a prominent role in solving the opioid crisis. OPTIC’s mission is to be a national resource, fostering innovative research in opioid policy science, and developing and disseminating methods, tools, and information to the research community, policymakers, and other stakeholders. The work of the Center focuses on policy effects at multiple levels, the health care consequences of opioid misuse, and treatment access and effectiveness.