Dear RADx-UP partners,

The RADx-UP consortium ended 2022 on a high note. Over the last two years, your project teams have enrolled more than 355,000 participants, conducted more than 437,000 COVID-19 tests, published more than 125 research articles (including a collection in a special supplement to the American Journal of Public Health), and 102 project teams submitted CDE data to the CDCC.

Throughout the year, you connected and collaborated – in Working Groups and at our annual conferences, in Community Connections and during the Project-wide Meetings – sharing your learnings and insights around community-engaged research and COVID-19 testing and vaccination.

“Your passion, expertise, and especially your collaboration with each other has made all of this possible,” said co-Principal Investigator Giselle Corbie. “And the work continues. Everyone at the RADx-UP CDCC is energized by the momentum all the projects have created, and excited about what year 3, in 2023, has in store.” 

To honor your work and wrap up the year, we produced a Year in Review; watch a short video and read the news story here on RADx-UP.org.

Thank you for a full and engaging second year.

Final funding opportunity: Rapid Research Pilot Program grants

Jan. 13, 2023 is the deadline to apply for the one-year NIH-funded Rapid Research Pilot Program (RP2). Please share this opportunity with other networks.

Watch this video with a previous RADx-UP RP2 awardee and learn more about how to apply here.

RADx Data Hub open to all researchers



The newly launched RADx Data Hub can be used by researchers across all RADx projects (including RADx-UP) to view more than 125 RADx studies and request and analyze data from them. The Data Hub provides unprecedented access to COVID-19 data for researchers to conduct secondary data analyses, forge new collaborations, and build a community to accelerate scientific research and innovations. Check it out, and watch this video to learn more.

Share your work at the 2023 Scientific Meeting

Tell us today about how we can include your oral and poster presenters at the 2023 RADx-UP Scientific Meeting on May 3, 2023. This meeting is an opportunity to share your project’s insights and results with fellow consortium members, community partners, NIH leaders, and more. Submit a presentation proposal using this online form. Proposals will be reviewed and selected by a review committee made up of consortium members and community partners.

Proposal deadline has been extended to Feb. 10, 2023.

In December 2022, we were excited to see a Partnering for Impact writing team submit their manuscript to a journal. It is a big accomplishment to produce a manuscript from cross-consortium data just two years from RADx-UP's inception. This was a nice way to end the year, and we look forward to celebrating more manuscripts in the months ahead.

Find out more about proposals and writing teams on the Submitted Analysis Proposal list. Please continue submitting your Analysis Concepts and visit the Partnering for Impact homepage for more information about the initiative.

Engaging Black/African Americans Working Group launches new strategy and seeks new members

The Engaging Black/African Americans Working Group highlights the efforts of healthcare professionals and discusses best practices to support preventative care among predominantly Black populations in the context of COVID-19. This year, the Working Group will focus on facilitating virtual town halls that showcase RADx-UP projects and the communities they serve. Learn more about the Working Group’s new approach.

The Working Group meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month. The next meeting is Jan. 25, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. EST. This month’s meeting will feature health equity advocate Virgil Watson, Jr. (pictured above). He will discuss rural-based healthcare challenges, the importance of engaging with faith-based organizations, and what CEOs and other C-suite executives must consider before implementing changes. Use this link to join the meeting: https://zoom.us/j/97846227509

For more information about the Working Group and to join, visit the Engaging Black/African Americans Working Group Webpage.

Social, Ethical, and Behavioral Implications (SEBI) Working Group meeting and membership

The SEBI Working Group is interested in empirical research on the social, ethical, and behavioral implications – such as distrust of medical research, privacy, consent, transparency, bias, and stigma – related to COVID-19 testing and vaccination in underserved populations.

All RADx-UP community partners and project teams are invited to join this diverse and inclusive space using this form. The SEBI Working Group will be meeting next on

Jan. 25, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

Project-wide meeting presentation recap: Making COVID-19 testing more accessible to vulnerable populations in Portland, Maine

The September Project-wide Meeting included a project presentation by Kathleen Fairfield, Gloria D. Sclar, and David Ngandu of MaineHealth and Andrew Volkers of Preble Street. The team braved the cold of winter in Portland, Maine to introduce low-barrier COVID-19 testing clinics to immigrant, low-income, and homeless community members. The project’s goals were to understand COVID-19 testing experiences, barriers, and facilitators through interviews with community members and to increase testing accessibility. The team was able to adapt the clinic to the needs of the community, illustrating the importance of being responsive and building trusting relationships with community partners. Read more about the project and presentation.

December 2022 Project-wide Meeting recording available

The recording of the December Project-wide Meeting, which took place on Dec. 15, 2022, is now available. Find it on Warpwire and myRADx-UPhome.

Toolkit for Engaging Diverse Communities to Plan and Implement Public Health Programs

Say Yes! COVID Test and You & Me COVID-Free program leaders and community partners developed a toolkit to share lessons learned and guide future community-engaged public health programs in underrepresented communities. It highlights the importance of community engagement, outlines how to go about fostering it, and describes the vital role of communities in improving public health both now and in the future. Give it a read as you plan for engaging community partners in this new year.

The first image of Mars was a paint-by-numbers drawing

As we go into a new year that is certain to hold the development of new technologies, it’s fun to look back at the old ways of doing things. In July of 1965, the space probe Mariner 4 flew by the surface of Mars to photograph it. Employees at the Telecommunications Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were anxious to see the photo and couldn’t wait for it to process. Their solution was to print the 1’s and 0’s into strips and color them in them according to the brightness of each pixel. The result was the first TV image of Mars, colored by hand. Interestingly, the scientists did not select the color scheme because Mars was red, but because those shades most effectively represented the differences in light and dark. It’s cool to see how much the finished product does represent the colors of Mars. Dan Goods shares more of the story and fun facts here.