LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has scored a $20.3 million grant to lead a health research network involving 13 universities in seven western states.

The five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health was announced Wednesday by UNLV and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

School officials say the project, called the Clinical Translational Research Infrastructure Network, will expand the individual universities' ability to put clinical research into practice to address health concerns including cancer, obesity and diabetes.

Program director Dr. Robert D. Langer says the grant should help address the Mountain West's particular challenges delivering health care.

The network will include schools in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.

A festival planned for Paradise Park will help parents and kids understand childhood obesity and hopefully prevent the condition.

The Healthy Kids Festival will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. The event is free and open to the public.

Children will dance to live music, play soccer, participate in Zumba classes, learn to grow their own foods and be part of other activities designed to get them thinking about healthy living.

There will also be information about resources available to the community to help the whole family make healthy lifestyle choices.

At last year's event, more than 1,000 parents and children were able to get information on childhood obesity and prevention.

Workshops aimed at helping parents talk to kids about teen pregnancy are scheduled for later in the month.

The Southern Nevada Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition will host a series of free workshops for parents and guardians interested in talking to their pre-teen and teen children about sexual relationships, preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

The first workshop is scheduled for 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29 at the Walnut Cecile Community Center, 3075 Walnut Road.