Federal Funding
Since its establishment in 2009, the Schaeffer Center 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: Minority Aging Health Economics Research Center
Since 2012, the National Institutes of Health has awarded the Schaeffer Center $9.7 million for a Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR). Focused on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD), the program is led by Julie Zissimopoulos and aims to provide infrastructure and resources to increase the number, diversity and academic success of researchers focusing on the health and economic wellbeing of minority elderly populations.
The USC AD/ADRD RCMAR examines the differences across racial and ethnic groups of elderly in healthcare decision-making, including medical care utilization and Medicare Part D plan choice; health behaviors and outcomes; and financial behavior including savings and work, and economic wellbeing. The project aims are to support research careers in the health and economic challenges of minority elderly; to solicit pilot studies; to mentor junior faculty (RCMAR scholars) in multidisciplinary training; to begin new lines of research; and to track and evaluate success of pilot RCMAR scholar investigators.
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 (CeASES-ADRD)
Led by Julie Zissimopoulos, the Center for Advancing Sociodemographic and Economic Study of Alzheimer’s Disease (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.