Student-Athlete
Health & Well-Being Initiative

Created in 2013, the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative (SAHWBI) is a collective effort between the Pac-12 and all 12 member universities to find ways to reduce injuries, share current best practices and latest studies and conduct research to uncover new ways to keep student-athletes as safe as possible.

The 2022 Funding Cycle is open for proposal submission. A Letter of Intent is due no later than September 17, 2021. Proposal submissions are due October 1, 2021. Questions may be sent to health@pac-12.org.

Click here to access the proposal submission form (Microsoft Word doc).

​Travel funding is available for student-athletes from Pac-12 institutions for research projects related to student-athlete health and well-being using data collected from the Health Analytics Program’s ‘Research Portal’. The Research Portal contains de-identified information on student athlete injury and illness, including concussion and COVID-19 testing. This includes demographic, injury, event, exposure, and outcome data. Projects should answer a simple research question.

Examples of such questions are:

• What is the incidence of stress fractures in male compared to female distance runners?
• What are the most common injuries and amount of time lost in collegiate pole vaulters?
• What has been the trend of ACL injuries in female compared to male soccer athletes?

Students-athletes will be expected to present a poster type session of their findings at the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health Conference (May 13-14, 2022) and should identify a research mentor at their institution, or through the Pac-12, to assist in fully developing the research question and with data analysis. For help identifying a research mentor talk to your team physician, athletic trainer or the Pac-12 Research Development Director (kharmon@uw.edu).

Applications will be assessed based on the knowledge gap the research question addresses and the ability of the question to be answered with the data available in the Research Portal. Successful applicants will have all costs covered up to $2,000, including a daily per diem to help with incidental expenses. There are a total of five available awards. To apply, submit a short application here: Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health Conference Support Application.

The Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative (SAHWBI) is a collective effort between the Conference and our member universities to find ways to keep student athletes safe, and we’d like to collaborate with interested partners to improve our research. 

Industry partners interested in engaging the Pac-12 SAHWBI, and interested Pac-12 researchers, should direct initial inquiries to Pac-12 Research Development Director, Dr. Kimberly Harmon at kharmon@uw.edu.

Student-athlete health and safety is the primary focus of SAHWBI and our Initiative harnesses the full resources of the Pac-12's research institutions for the benefit of our current and future student-athletes.  Dr. Harmon works collaboratively with appropriate Pac-12 representatives and other individuals to provide guidance related to Pac-12 student-athlete projects.  She will be happy to work with and connect interested parties to researchers at their institutions.

More developed inquiries can be submitted via our formal Research Collaboration Request Form.

More information on the SAHWBI, and how interested parties may be able to have an impact on the health and well-being of our student-athletes, can be found here.

As part of the Pac-12's continuous efforts to protect the health & well-being of student-athletes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Conference established a special medical advisory committee among its member universities. As a part its ongoing review and update of its return-to-play guidelines, the committee has created and regularly updates its considerations, which can be found here: Pac-12 COVID-19 Return to Play Considerations – May 21, 2021. 

On Nov. 2, ahead of the season's return to competition, the Pac-12 announced further details related to football game week testing protocols which can be found here. 

On Dec. 1, upon the commencement of the basketball season, the Pac-12 announced further details related to basketball testing protocols which can be found here. 

A complete list of members on the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee can be found here.