The Research and Innovation Office has awarded $43,907 to five additional projects as part of the NC A&T and UMN Research Partnership, a seed grant program aimed at developing a research partnership between the University of Minnesota and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), a leading research institution among America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The Phase I awards, which were up to $10,000 per project, will build relationships between faculty at both institutions and across all research areas, and will include researcher exchanges, seminars, lectures, lab visits, and other relevant activities. The following projects received funding:
Critical Perspectives on Emerging Technologies in an HBCU Honors Program: Toward Responsible Integration
Lead PI: Bruna Damiana Heinsfeld, Curriculum and Instruction, UMN
Co-PI: Gerard Dumancas, Associate Dean for Research and Program Innovation, NC A&T
A Collaborative Dairy Research Partnership: University of Minnesota and NC A&T
Lead PI: Bradley Heins, West Central Research and Outreach Center, UMN
Co-PIs: Isaac Haagen and Isaac Salfer, Department of Animal Science, UMN
Lauren Mayo, Animal Sciences, NC A&T
Building Rural Brain Health Equity through Community-Based Participatory Research: A UMN-NC A&T Partnership
Lead PI: Kristen Jacklin, Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health, UMD
Co-PIs: Joshua Fergen, Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team, UMD
Cassandra Germain and Stephanie Teixeira-Poit, Center of Excellence for Integrative Health Disparities and Equity Research (CIHDER), and Shuang Li, Sociology and Social Work, NC A&T
Improving Economic Education: A Collaboration around AI and Open Educational Resources
Lead PI: Caroline Krafft, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN
Co-PI: Scott Simkins and Wisdom Takumah, Economics, NC A&T
Collaborations to Advance Population Health Informatics (CAP)
Lead PI: Sripriya Rajamani, School of Nursing, UMN
Co-PIs: Robin Austin, School of Nursing, UMN
Angelo Moore and Cassandra Germain, Center of Excellence for Integrative Health Disparities and Equity Research, NC A&T
This was the final round of Phase I seed grants for this program which has funded 14 Phase I grants. Phase II will launch in 2026 and will provide higher funding for conducting joint seed projects. Applicants who have completed a successful Phase I effort will be eligible to submit Phase II proposals. Collectively, the collaborations developed in Phase I and Phase II are expected to build upon their outcomes and approach for additional funding from federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DoD), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), among others.