Grant and Sponsored Program Awards
By Jim Mortenson to The University Reporter (October 2007)
Thanks to the outstanding work of our faculty, staff, and students, in academic year 2006-2007 UMass Boston set a new record for grant and sponsored program awards—$41.8 million, or a 7.9 percent increase from the previous year, and an astounding increase of 50.6 percent in the last five years.
"Not so long ago, UMass Boston was not a research institution. I'm very pleased to say that this is no longer the case," said Chancellor Keith Motley. "But even as we take our place in the ranks of other research colleges and universities nationally and in the area, and proudly note the good that our research provides for the world, we're especially proud to say that we're the only public research university in Boston."
"We continue making great strides in obtaining external funds to support our many research, training and education, and public service programs," said Paul J. Fonteyn, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "Our reputation as a successful urban, research university has never been better, and, thanks to our faculty and staff, our students and the citizens of Massachusetts are benefiting directly from our achievements."
Leading the way with last year's largest award was William Brah, executive director of the new UMass Boston Venture Development Center (VDC). In fact, the VDC is so new that it has yet to officially open its doors--that will happen in June 2008-- but Brah has already been awarded a $4.95 million dollar grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development. The VDC, which will be located on the third floor of Wheatley Hall, will support and showcase new research collaborations between the university's researchers and their external partners.
Now in the third of a five-year $12.5 million National Science Foundation grant, UMass Boston received $2.7 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.
Alice Carter, professor of psychology, was awarded a $1.2 million grant from the internationally prestigious foundation Autism Speaks. Carter serves as principal investigator for the project "A Multi-Site Randomized Trial of the Hanen More Than Words Intervention," a methodologically sophisticated, clinical research study. As part of the project, she is collaborating with nationally renowned autism researchers at The May Institute-National Autism Center, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Miami.
Building on its commitment to public service, UMass Boston was awarded a $634,000 grant from The Corporation for National and Community Service to support the Community Technology Center (CTC) VISTA Project. The project provides administration and coordination for the recruitment, placement, and ongoing support of 40 AmeriCorps VISTA members in CTCs across the country. Peter Miller, College of Public and Community Service, is the project's principal investigator.
The U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education awarded UMass Boston a five-year, nearly $2 million Title III grant to increase student retention through improved articulation, transfer, and enrollment systems. The initial year of funding is $565,000. Joan Becker, associate vice provost for academic support services, leads a project team that includes Kathleen Teehan, vice chancellor for enrollment management.
UMass Boston will take a bilateral approach, coordinated through a Transfer Center, to improving transfer student retention. The first component will focus on curriculum and program articulation through the development of a comprehensive and systematic process involving faculty-to-faculty work groups for the preparation and approval of articulation agreements with UMass Boston's five top, two-year transfer institutions.
The second component will use portal technology and a new on-line advising system to substantially increase student access to information and services. By 2011, the project seeks to increase enrollment through improved recruitment, retention, and graduation of transfer students, and improve the transfer retention rate by 10 points and the transfer degree completion rate by 5 points over the year 2003.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded UMass Boston's Fiske Center for Archaeological Research a prestigious $240,000, three-year grant. Dr. John Steinberg, the project's principal investigator and Fiske Center scientist, his colleagues based at Northwestern University, Penn State University, University of Iceland, UCLA, and the University of California-San Diego, and UMass Boston students spent six weeks this past summer conducting the first of three seasons of archaeological fieldwork in Skagafjordur, Northern Iceland.
Steinberg's fieldwork compares large and small Viking farmsteads in order to understand how and why the smaller farmsteads were apparently subdivided from earlier and larger farmsteads. This subdivision appears to be an important part of the creation of substantial economic inequality of later Norse and Medieval Iceland.
Alexey Veraksa, assistant professor of biology, was awarded a $390,000, three year NSF grant for the project "Molecular Scaffolds in Drosophila Signal Transduction." Development of multicellular organisms critically depends on the activity of several evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways. Veraksa uses Drosophila (i.e., fruit flies) as a model experimental system to address two key questions: 1) how cells control the precise quantity of signals transmitted through these signaling pathways, and 2) how cells integrate and interpret different signaling inputs to make an appropriate cell fate choice.
"Any award of funds from an external agency that directly supports UMass Boston's research, teaching, and public service missions is invaluable," observed Richard F. Antonak, vice provost for research. "Research informs teaching, teaching informs research. And research activities are a fundamental part of the university's service programs. Taking this approach benefits our university community and the many diverse groups we serve. We need all faculty and staff to continue contributing to growing the university's research enterprise. They have done a superb job, and our students and the people of Massachusetts are counting on all of us to reach for and achieve even greater levels of success."