The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) at Midwestern University, in keeping with its role of cultivating innovation and the pursuit of excellence in scientific advancement within the University community, is pleased to announce new milestones in extramural research and sponsored program awards.
Since the start of fiscal year 2023 and through the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, Midwestern University faculty researchers have received over $14 million in new research and sponsored program awards for research projects and training programs from federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Department of Education (DoE), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This amount represents a significant increase in new funding – almost double the amount from the previous fiscal year, and four-and-a-half times the total amount of grant monies from five years ago. There have been 24 newly awarded grants divided between the University’s two campuses in Downers Grove, Illinois, and Glendale, Arizona since July 2022.
Midwestern University researchers have historic levels of financial support for their projects when considering strong intramural support for research combined with extramural expenditures in research, training, and faculty support programs nearly doubling in the current fiscal year to over $4 million.
“In combination with Midwestern University’s strong hiring practices and the solid training our faculty received at world-renowned institutions, we have strategically strived to provide our faculty with excellent resources to enhance their funding success,” remarks James M. Woods, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President of Research. “They have access to grant writing expertise, bioclinical statisticians, core facilities with state-of-the-art technology, intramural funding, and in many cases research technicians to assist with generating preliminary data.”
Both campuses have each procured approximately $7 million in new funding since July 1, 2022. Four programs in particular have received over $1 million in grants: a research program investigating dosing regimens for pneumonia patients (N. Jim Rhodes, Pharm.D., M.S., BCPS, Associate Professor, Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove Campus, $3.4 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [NIAID]); a hybrid research/training program exploring the connection between oral inflammation and gastrointestinal disorders (John Mitchell, Ph.D., Associate Dean, College of Dental Medicine-Arizona, $3.4 million from NIH); a training program for occupational therapists to prepare for service on school mental health teams (Lisa Mahaffey, Ph.D., OTR/L, FAOTA, Professor, Occupational Therapy Program, College of Health Sciences, Downers Grove Campus, $1.15 million from the US DoE); and a training program to prepare speech-language pathology students who identify as neurodivergent, bilingual, or BIPOC to serve autistic schoolchildren (Schea Fissel, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Associate Professor, Speech-Language Pathology Program, College of Health Sciences, Glendale Campus, $1.28 million from the US DoE).
Other research and sponsored projects currently being funded involve Alzheimer’s disease research; clinical trials examining the drug vancomycin’s effects on kidney function; a study of the COVID virus’ effect on canines; research into the evolution and adaptation of touch in primates; establishing a training program for rural food animal practice in Native American reservations; and many more. Midwestern University independent and collaborative research has been featured in national and international publications such as Nature, Scientific Reports, Palaeontologia Electronica, and the Journal of Clinical Virology. Additionally, the ORSP serves as a significant resource for Midwestern University student research by funding fellowships and supporting student travel to present research at national conferences, in addition to supporting a research seminar series, the Kenneth A. Suarez Research Day on each campus, and an internal website filled with research-related information.
For more information about Midwestern University’s achievements in Research and Sponsored Programs, visit the Annual Research Publications page.
