Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
Identifying Needs and Building Research Capacity at an Historically-Black University Summary Delaware State University (DSU) is an Historically-Black University with an emerging excellence in biomedical research. HBCUs such as DSU play a vital role in increasing diversity in biomedical research. HBCU faculty, students, and graduates bring diverse perspectives that foster innovative solutions and ensure that research addresses health disparities, the needs of the African American community, as well as a broader, more inclusive population in general. DSU in particular, serves a significant number of students from underrepresented groups, primarily African American (75% of full-time undergraduate enrollment) and provides our students valuable research experiences and mentorship to encourage and enable them to pursue careers in science and medicine. Our STRONG project will support structured needs assessments to examine DSU’s research and organizational capabilities and develop short- and long-term action plans to leverage existing strengths and develop strategic approaches for improvement. We have assembled a Steering Committee that brings together over 20 leaders across all institutional sectors that support the research enterprise, including operations functions such as Facilities and IT, to administrative offices such as Human Resources, Finance, and Restricted Funds Accounting, and individuals representing the academic program such as College Deans, members of the Faculty Senate Research Committee, and the leadership of the School of Graduate Studies, and the Office of Undergraduate Research. The Committee will be organized into subcommittees with specific focus areas related to different functions that support the research enterprise. The PI team for this project brings together a research administrator with a long history of success in winning NIH grants (Harrington), DSU’s Sr. Associate VP for Institutional Effectiveness (Murray-Jackson) and the Associate VP for Academic Operations (Sudler), who has expertise in process improvement using the Lean Six Sigma framework. We also have a partnership with the Consultants Program of the National Organization for Research Development Professionals (NORDP) that will provide access to vetted research development professionals who will conduct a confidential onsite review of program activities, interview key stakeholders, and engage with the STRONG grant Steering Committee to help determine institutional strengths, limitations, and opportunities related to research development. The consultants will then work with the Steering Committee to develop action plans and milestones to strengthen DSU’s biomedical research capacity and develop institutional research themes that align with our academic strengths and DSU’s historic mission to serve underrepresented populations. Our STRONG project will enable DSU to develop benchmarks, and action items to leverage strengths and meet identified needs leading to increased competitiveness for external funding and transformation of DSU’s biomedical research portfolio.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
