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  1. About CHIBE

The Penn Roybal Center on Behavioral Economics and Health

The History of the Roybal Center

In 2009, CHIBE investigators successfully competed for NIH funding to establish what was then one of two NIH Centers on behavioral economics and health (now the Penn Roybal Center on Behavioral Economics and Health). This program is now one of 13 Roybal Centers nationally supported by the National Institute on Aging to conduct translational research in middle-aged and older populations. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, and other universities comprises our Roybal Center. Scientists from the fields of medicine, economics, psychology, statistics, law, epidemiology, and other disciplines work together to design interventions that leverage principles of behavioral economics to improve health and health care by increasing healthy behavior, improving chronic disease management, and increasing the quality and value of clinician care.

What the Roybal Center Does

With funding from the National Institute on Aging, the Roybal Center distributes pilot funding for projects that translate ideas from behavioral economics into practice in ‘real world’ settings, specifically testing interventions that reach middle-aged and elderly Americans at high risk for premature morbidity and mortality. 

The pilot program aims to:

  1. give research opportunities to junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students in behavioral economics;
  2. encourage interaction between affiliated researchers;
  3. build collaborations with new partner organizations that have access to populations and potential willingness to translate results from the research studies into practice.