Grant starter ideas

Project ideas with a geographic component, grouped by the kind of funder they suit. Each lists the role GeoALS would play. They are starting points to adapt to a funder's priorities. Confirm interest, capacity and scope with GeoALS before including a role in a proposal.

Access to care · Recruitment and registries · Environmental context · Standards and infrastructure · Advocacy and policy · Training · Other diseases

Access to care

Idea	GeoALS role	Suits
Measure travel time to multidisciplinary clinics and identify communities far from care	Drive-time analysis, maps, public dashboard	Foundations focused on care; health services research programs
Pair clinic review data with location to study variation in services offered	Clinic Advisor data, analysis support	Quality improvement funders
Plan satellite or telehealth-supported clinic sites using population and travel data	Site suitability analysis	Health systems, state programs
Map durable medical equipment loan closets, support groups and respite services against need	Data collection through survey apps, mapping	Community foundations

Research recruitment and registries

Idea	GeoALS role	Suits
Compare where study participants live with where people with the disease are expected to live, to guide outreach	Recruitment pattern analysis, as done with partner studies	Any study with a recruitment aim
Add a geographic module to a patient registry: address history capture, geocoding plan, derived variables	Design, tooling, governance guidance	Registry funders
Map trial site locations against the eligible population	Site access analysis	Trial networks, industry sponsors

Environmental context

Idea	GeoALS role	Suits
Link residential history in an existing cohort to open environmental data sets	Linkage design and execution, documentation	Research programs on gene and environment interaction
Build a reusable, documented linkage pipeline that other cohorts can run	Pipeline development, open publication	Infrastructure and data science funders
Engage community members in describing places and concerns they want studied	Engagement, participatory mapping	Community-engaged research programs

Data standards and infrastructure

Idea	GeoALS role	Suits
Represent location history and environmental context in a common data model, with a published implementation guide	Informatics lead or consultant	Informatics and data standards programs
Contribute term requests and use cases to open ontologies and working groups	Curation and community liaison	Open science funders
Publish GeoALS clinic and resource layers with full metadata, identifiers and licenses	Data stewardship	Open data and infrastructure funders

Advocacy and policy

Idea	GeoALS role	Suits
Extend the Legislative Viewer to state legislatures	App development, data maintenance	Advocacy funders
Produce district fact sheets from Hub data for advocacy days	Automated map and fact sheet production	Advocacy organizations

Training and capacity

Idea	GeoALS role	Suits
Expert-led training tailored to a research team, clinic or community organization	Needs assessment, curriculum, instruction, exercises and follow-up	Capacity-building funders; training components of research grants
A StoryMaps workshop that helps a partner explain care access, community resources or study findings	Story planning, hands-on instruction, accessibility and source review, feedback on a draft	Community engagement, education and dissemination funders
A short course on GIS for patient advocacy organizations, built on this site	Curriculum, instruction	Capacity-building funders
Fellowships or internships placing GIS students with the Mappers	Mentorship, project supply	Education and workforce programs
Accessible mapping: methods and tools for map makers who use eye-gaze and other assistive technology	Lived expertise, tool testing	Disability and assistive technology funders

See Training with GeOALS for a topic menu, formats and an example StoryMaps workshop scope.

Other neurodegenerative diseases

The clinic locator, clinic review and legislative mapping models can be adapted for another disease community. A partner organization would bring its clinic lists, community and priorities, and GeoALS its platform and method.

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