by Emma Shepard
The UAB Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) committee has announced its 2024 awardees. In total, over $12 million is pledged to seven projects over three years.
The SIF backs cross-campus projects — designed and led by UAB faculty and staff — that align with the university's strategic plan, Forging Ahead. This year’s SIF project awardees include:
- Developing a “Data Driven Decision Making” Environment at UAB
- Empowered Care Forging Ahead in Health and Wellness for Individuals with Disabilities
- Forging Ahead Through Sustainability at UAB
- Live HealthSmart Alabama
- Rural Reach Mobile Health for Maternal and Child Care
- Seed Funding to Establish the Alabama Public Service Training Initiative
- UAB Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulator Lab
Read more about each project on the SIF site, including principal point of contact and timeline.
Projects are evaluated based on their collaborative nature and ability to engage the UAB campus and/or surrounding community. In addition to collaboration, the SIF committee evaluates proposals based on strategic fit, potential impact, feasibility, leadership support, and sustainability.
Since projects may be anywhere from one to three years, the committee re-evaluates projects’ success and effectiveness on an annual basis.
The SIF Committee includes Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Janet Woodruff-Borden, Ph.D. (co-chair); Senior Vice President for Advancement and Strategic Initiatives Tom Brannan (co-chair); Vice President for Research Chris Brown Ph.D.; Professor and Dean of the School of Education and Human Sciences Teresa Taber Doughty, Ph.D., and Professor of Public Health, Health Policy and Organization and Faculty Senate Chair Eric Ford, Ph.D.
“The committee was impressed by this cohort of applicants,” said Woodruff-Borden. “We’re delighted that these seven selected projects prioritize our institutional values, are highly collaborative, have strong support from leadership, and have a feasible plan to achieve the project mission.”
One initiative, “Rural Reach Mobile Health for Maternal and Child Care” aims to expand access to maternal and child health and integrated behavioral health services. The project team plans to establish a mobile health, nurse-led practice to provide community-based care for underserved women and children in rural and underserved counties across Alabama.
The team also plans to collaborate with existing UAB resources, such as the All of Us Mobile Health Unit and services of the Nurse-Family Partnership of Greater Alabama.
Another project, “Developing a ‘Data Driven Decision Making’ Environment at UAB” aims to develop a more comprehensive data governance and management approach to frameworks, resources, and tools to effectively utilize data at UAB. One major goal of the project is to replace aging student data technology to assist in boosting student enrollment and degree completion.
Not every project is new — in fact, Live HealthSmart Alabama was first established in 2019, born from UAB’s inaugural Grand Challenge, and will be supported by its second SIF funding cycle. Live HealthSmart Alabama seeks to lift state health rankings for Alabama through its mobile market, community health screenings, education initiatives, and more.
“As you can see, these initiatives address a wide variety of campus and community needs, but they are all unified under our UAB vision, mission, and values,” said Woodruff-Borden. “We are looking forward to seeing the wonderful work that is to come.”
