Immersive virtual reality to prevent violence among college students
Official title: SBIR, Innovative Immersive Technologies for Evidence-Based Violence Prevention among College Students
Funded at National Health Promotion Associates, INC. · NIH-11188946 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will create and test virtual reality modules to help college students build life skills that lower the chances of violence, substance misuse, and sexual aggression.
Quick facts
| Grant type | Sbir 2 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | National Health Promotion Associates, INC. NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (White Plains, United States) |
| Project start | September 30, 2024 |
| Project end | September 29, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $612,014 |
| NIH project number | 5R44CE003173-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11188946 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are college-age students, especially incoming undergraduates at participating colleges, who want to learn skills to avoid violence and substance misuse.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not college-age, not enrolled at a participating campus, or who need immediate clinical care for violence-related harm are unlikely to benefit from this prevention program.
What this research studies
If you are a college student, this project would add short virtual reality (VR) sessions to an existing Life Skills Training program to help you practice personal and social skills. The team will design immersive VR scenarios based on a proven prevention curriculum and refine them during Phase II development. They will then try the VR modules with incoming college students at participating campuses and collect surveys and behavior-related measures to see how well the modules work in real life. The goal is to make the prevention lessons more engaging and easier to practice so students feel more prepared to handle risky situations.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could make prevention training more engaging and help students reduce their risk of violence, substance problems, and sexual misconduct.
How similar studies have gone: The underlying Life Skills Training program has shown success in many randomized trials for youth, but using immersive VR with college students is a newer approach with limited prior testing.
Where this research is happening
-
National Health Promotion Associates, INC.
White Plains, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Williams, Christopher — National Health Promotion Associates, INC.
- Study coordinator: Williams, Christopher
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.