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Cathleen Savage

NORC

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Linda J. Waite

 CHICAGO -- NORC Research Associate and University of Chicago Professor of Sociology Linda J. Waite became the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) MERIT award - Method to Extend Research in Time.  MERIT awards are among the most selective research grants given by the NIH, with less than 5 percent of NIH-funded investigators selected as recipients.  MERIT awards provide long-term support to outstanding, experienced investigators. The awards recognize researchers who have demonstrated superior competence and outstanding productivity in research endeavors of special importance or promise.

Waite's recent work on biomarkers and pharmaceutical data on population-based aging research has yielded groundbreaking knowledge about the sexual behavior of older Americans as part of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP), the project for which she received the MERIT Award.

"MERIT awards recognize leaders in aging-related research,” said Richard M. Suzman, Ph.D., director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging. “This MERIT award is for an important study that extends Linda Waite’s work on the influence of social ties and marital relationships on health and well-being as we age.  In this significant project, Dr. Waite is focusing on a key, yet poorly understood and understudied, aspect of social relationships for older people.”

MERIT awards provide investigators with an opportunity for extension of their current grant for an additional 3 to 5 years without having to submit a traditional competing renewal application.  Receipt of the award also allows an automatic carryover of unexpended funds into the subsequent budget cycle. These benefits free the researcher from paperwork and allow them to concentrate their efforts on advancing the research.

Waite is the Lucy Flower Professor of Sociology and the Co-Director of NORC's Center on Demography and Economics of Aging. The Center, funded for more than 15 years by the National Institute on Aging, provides support for more than 30 funded research projects in the areas of social relationships, living arrangements, and family; the social context of aging; health care research; and biobehavioral pathways.

Learn more about NORC at www.norc.org.