Grant and sponsored program awards rise again!
November 2008 — Records are made to be broken and once again the faculty, staff, and students of UMass Boston set a new record in FY 2008 for grant and sponsored program awards—$45.4 million, or an 8.77 percent increase from the previous year.
"I am so pleased that we have solidified and are continuing to enhance our reputation as a research university," said Chancellor Keith Motley. "Now, as I stated in my recent convocation address, we need to look at our various research projects, see who is working on what and how the cross-pollination of efforts can have a multiplier effect. That's the purpose of the new research clusters we have formed."
Motley went on to say how he believes that the soon-to-open Venture Development Center will play an integral role in bringing together multidisciplinary teams of faculty and research staff to obtain external grants and contracts. Federal sponsors, for example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), more and more are requiring multidisciplinary, sometimes a multi-institutional, approaches to conducting research.
Interim Provost Winston Langley echoes Motley's approach: "We are on the cusp of challenging the traditional boundaries of thinking at institutions of higher education. The cross-pollination the chancellor espouses will be perhaps the most critical factor in shaping our identity and success as a research institution in the years ahead. Our students, especially our undergraduate students, have much to gain should we succeed."
UMass Boston was awarded a $7.7 million, five-year grant by the NIH to establish an exploratory center for health and health care disparities that is dedicated to community based participatory research. UMass Boston, Harvard School of Public Health, and Brigham and Women's Hospital have partnered with Cherishing Our Hearts and Souls Coalition of Roxbury, Massachusetts, to conduct health disparities related research projects; offer research training, with an emphasis on community based participatory research, to faculty, students, and community stakeholders; and build a neighborhood-based infrastructure that can partner with academic institutions in Boston to research and implement "best practices" in community based participatory research and academic-community partnerships. Professor Celia Moore, Department of Psychology, is the project's principal investigator, and faculty from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the College of Public and Community Service are contributing their research expertise.
Professor Ron Etter and Rob Stevenson, Department of Biology, were awarded a $592,000, three-year basic research grant from the NSF for their project "Evolution of Deep-Sea Molluscs." Etter's research will contribute significantly to answering the two most basic questions about evolutionary diversification in the vast deep-sea environment: Where does it occur? And how does it occur? It will also create a solid conceptual and methodological context for future evolutionary studies in the deep sea.
The NIH awarded Associate Professors Rachel Skvirsky and Adán Colón-Carmona, Department of Biology, a $1.4 million, four-year grant to enhance the academic and research experiences of underrepresented students at the undergraduate level, in order to increase the number pursing doctoral study in biomedical fields and attaining doctoral degrees. The project’s official title is the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity, or IMSD, at UMass Boston. A key component of this project is UMass Boston's partnership with the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, the main goal of which is to address health disparities in minority populations and to improve research, training, and outreach opportunities for minority students.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded a three-year $8.2 million grant to the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies to focus on developing information and tools that improve the integration of natural and social science with ocean management. Stephen Crosby, dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, and his colleague Robbin Peach, a senior research fellow, are the project's coprincipal investigators. The grant focuses on science integration efforts that will directly support the state’s formal ocean management planning and decision making processes.
Peach and her colleagues on the Massachusetts Ocean Management Task Force initiated the concept of securing a grant. The Task Force, comprised of state and local officials and private individuals representing diverse ocean user groups, met between June 2003 and March 2004 to develop recommendations for state action. To maintain momentum, Peach organized a group called Massachusetts Ocean Partnership (MOP), now housed at UMass Boston.
With the Moore Foundation grant, MOP will tackle questions such as what tools exist and what tools need to be developed to evaluate economic tradeoffs when considering resource management options. MOP also will convene working groups in a non-regulatory setting to seek collaborative solutions to difficult ocean management issues and options for consideration in formal decision-making processes.
Now in the fifth of a five-year $12.5 million National Science Foundation grant, UMass Boston received $2.6 million to continue leading the work of the Boston Science Partnership (BSP). The BSP brings together three of Boston's major educational institutions—UMass Boston, Northeastern University, and the Boston Public Schools—to raise student achievement in science among all students in Boston, from grade six through the university level. Hannah Sevian, who holds a joint appointment as associate professor of chemistry in the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) and of curriculum and instruction in the Graduate College of Education (GCE), is the project's principal investigator as well as the partnership's leader. The project is based in the Center of Science and Mathematics in Context, or COSMIC, a CSM/GCE joint venture.
The NSF awarded UMass Boston a $1.6 million, five-year grant for the project "Active Physics." Research Professor Arthur Eisenkraft, of COSMIC, is the project's principal investigator. In partnership with Boston University, Boston Public Schools, and the Los Angeles Unified School District develop, Eisenkraft will develop, implement, and study a dual model of professional teacher development. The dual model will combine traditional professional development with an online professional development platform known as the Active Physics Teachers Community.
"Our research accomplishments were many and varied this past year," said Vice Provost for Research Richard Antonak. "I am looking forward to another year of providing and enhancing an environment that encourages our faculty and staff to reach for and achieve even greater successes. Our faculty and staff are superb. And I am especially excited to be able to provide them with additional research infrastructure and innovation support in the form of the Venture Development Center."
By Jim Mortenson, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
[Contact: Jim Mortenson: james.mortenson@umb.edu]