URI Awarded $20 Million Grant to Expand Biomedical Research
GoLocalProv News Team
URI Awarded $20 Million Grant to Expand Biomedical Research
URI is part of the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), which was established to expand statewide research capacity in the biomedical sciences.
“The INBRE program has been truly transformative for Rhode Island’s research community. We’ve contributed to expanding the opportunities for faculty research and trained hundreds of students who are now earning advanced degrees or are out in the workforce,” said URI President David M. Dooley.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Island College, Brown University Providence College, Bryant University, Roger Williams University, Salve Regina University and the Community College of Rhode Island are also in the program.
The Grant
New initiatives to be funded by the latest grant to the program include the establishment of post-baccalaureate positions to encourage outstanding students to remain part of the biomedical workforce in Rhode Island, and the expansion of the existing teaching postdoctoral fellows program.
New teaching assistantships will also be created to support the graduate education of students who previously participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program.
The new grant will also help launch community engagement activities and new collaborations with other existing research programs involved in complementary themes around the state.
INBRE
The program has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2001 with $61 million in previous grants.
“Our job is to make sure that junior faculty around the state have the basic biomedical research infrastructure available so they can train the next generation of biomedical scientists and create a pipeline to fill the needs of the state’s biomedical sector. Science is expensive, so INBRE was developed at the federal level as one mechanism to help researchers at all institutions be competitive. And, in Rhode Island, the results have been impressive,” said Bongsup Cho, the URI professor of pharmacy who leads the program.
Over the program’s first 17 years, it has supported over 500 research and training projects involving 151 different faculty members.
It has also provided research training to 1,381 undergraduate students, 168 graduate students and 48 postdoctoral fellows.
According to URI, many of the students in the program have earned post-graduate degrees and are now employed at universities, hospitals, and pharmaceutical and engineering companies.
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