The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is excited to announce grant recipients of the International Institute for Biosensing (IIB), a new globally-engaged institute at the University of Minnesota focused on advancing biosensing research. Biosensing is a fundamental technology that has a broad spectrum of applications, including food safety, agriculture, the environment, healthcare, animal health, national security, and water quality.
OVPR has awarded $1.1 million to support five interdisciplinary biosensing projects over the next three years. Funding for the projects, which bring together biological and non-biological disciplines from across the University, will support PhD student assistantships that will form the core of a UMN cohort that will collaborate with a network of national and international peers. The projects will start in August/September 2023.
Through the IIB, the University will bring together an international coalition of experts from academia, nonprofits, industry, and government agencies to create a collective global effort to identify and overcome technical barriers for advancing biosensing research. Last fall, the University signed an MOU with Kiel University in Berlin that opens the door for faculty and student exchanges and provides an opportunity for the UMN to leverage research being conducted at Kiel University’s state-of-the-art biomagnetic sensing and neurotronics collaborative research centers. The University will sign two more MOUs this year—with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (March 2023) and the Italian National Research Council (spring/summer 2023)—that will contribute to this growing biosensing research network.
The University plans to hire an executive director for the IIB this year.