The General Endowment Fund of the UA Health Services Foundation has announced the recipients of its annual faculty grants, awarding $1.5 million to UAB faculty for projects in clinical care, patient research, medical education and laboratory research. Each project must be multidisciplinary and demonstrate strong potential for long-term success.
In the 28 years from its founding in 1996 to the present, the HSF-GEF program has awarded grants totaling almost $60 million. Many of the projects funded through HSF-GEF grants have gone on to receive significant extramural funding and have become incorporated in the day-to-day work of UAB’s research and clinical enterprises.
One of the main goals of the grants is “our opportunity to help forge a collaborative community on campus,” said Robert Kimberly, M.D., senior associate dean for Strategic Initiatives in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, who leads the committees in charge of selecting projects each year. New clinics, equipment and programs made possible through HSF-GEF support spark collaborations among UAB investigators and help recruit promising clinicians and researchers to the institution, Kimberly notes.
“The program also benefits from the grassroots source of ideas and the creativity of transdisciplinary teams at UAB,” said Jennifer Croker, Ph.D., senior administrative director for the HSF-GEF programmatic review. “Whereas many internal funding mechanisms are guided by a particular topic or theme, the HSF-GEF grant program invites investigators to define emerging opportunities and pitch potential solutions.”
In fact, Kimberly notes, the number of worthwhile ideas always exceeds the available funds, which are derived from investment income on a portion of the sale price of UAB’s original health management organization in the mid-1990s. Kimberly estimates that between one in four and one in five applications each year receives funding. “This is a very competitive program,” he said. “If other organizations or businesses would like to join in contributing funding, we have many areas where our interests are and should be aligned. I would love to see that happen.”
Requests for applications for the next round of HSF-GEF awards will be released in spring 2025.
Recipients of the 2024 HSF-GEF awards are:
Clinical care
- “Establishment of a Precision Brain Health Program”
Principal investigator: Kristine Edmondson, Ph.D., professor, Department of Psychiatry - “Care-coordination and Patient Navigation for Patients on Dialysis: A Targeted Approach at UAB Medicine”
Principal investigator: Gaurav Jain, M.D., professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology - “3D Printer for Prosthetics and Orthotic Devices”
Principal investigator: Tracy Brewer, administrative director, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation - “Expansion of Telesitter Program Into the Geriatric Emergency Department”
Principal investigator: Rachel Skains, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
Patient-oriented research
- “Implementation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Research Coordinator To Improve Clinical Trial Education and Enrollment”
Principal investigator: Chad Wade, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine
Medical education
- “UAB House Calls Training: A Novel Approach to Staff Education with Emerging Technology”
Principal investigator: Marianthe Grammas, M.D., associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care - “Increasing Medical Education Opportunities at UAB’s Student-Run Free Clinic”
Principal investigator: Natasha Mehra, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Population Health - “Precision Medical Education: Using AI To Advance Competency-based Assessment”
Principal investigator: Winter Williams, M.D., associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Population Health
Laboratory research
- “Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope for UAB HRIF Institutional Core Facility”
Principal investigator: Alexa Mattheyses, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology - “Portable fNIRS System for MRI Non-compatible Participants”
Principal investigator: Virendra Mishra, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Radiology - “Improving Accessibility to Full-Spectrum Flow Cytometry Technology To Enhance Research Capabilities at UAB”
Principal investigator: Robert Welner, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology
