HBCU Alliance for Strategic Partnerships for Innovation and Research Enhancement
Collaborative Research: Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC)
National Science Foundation (NSF) Award #2332023
Award Period: October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026 (Estimated)
Project Overview
This project is the Historically Black College & University (HBCU) collaborative research alliance among the institutions of Coppin State University, Florida Memorial University, Kentucky State University, and Harris-Stowe State University. Such Strategic Partnerships for Innovation and Research Enhancement (HBCU-ASPIRE) initiative of these institutions is assured to remove existing infrastructural obstructions of research and innovation within HBCUs.
This project's major goals are to improve the existing infrastructural obstructions of the office of sponsored research, faculty support and training, pre- and post-research award management systems, and develop a collaborative, efficient, and innovative research milieu in these HBCUs. Furthermore, such HBCU initiatives will be the model for other institutions in their journey to strong research and innovation infrastructures.
Participating Institutions
Lead HBCU Organization: Kentucky State University
Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Jamie Boehmer
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI): Dr. Richard Maiti (richard.maiti@kysu.edu)
Collaborative HBCU Organizations:
Coppin State University; PI: Mintesinot Jiru
Florida Memorial University; PI: Jayanta K Das
Harris-Stowe State University; PI: Freddie Wills
Progress Tracking
- Coordinator supports the submission of grant applications on Grants.gov and other funding platforms
- Update the ORI website
- Develop a budget template and revise existing internal application forms to streamline the grant submission process
- Develop and implement solutions to common issues identified in analysis
- Draft list of Current and Potential Industry Partners
- Draft policies to support compliance and the timely development and submission of grants
- Develop fillable forms and proposal development templates
- Publish ORI policies on website and hold information sessions for faculty
- Developed an interactive dashboard to showcase the tasks completed and accomplishments of ORI
- Develop an IRB submission system that automates the task flow within the IRB Committee and ORI IRB Coordinator
- Hire a partnership and Research Coordinator within the Office of Research
- 2nd annual meeting of EPIIC and conducted GAP analysis with COHRT team members to identify areas for improvement
- Restructure KSU Office of Research & Innovation to unite pre- and post-award functions
- Draft new position descriptions for all Office of Research & Innovation (ORI) staff to align with pre-award, post-award, and proposal development service lines; Partnership and Research Coordinator position updated to Research & Innovation Associate and job duties aligned with updated KSU scope of work for EPIIC ASPIRE
- Conduct analysis of common issues encountered in ORI that contribute to noncompliance or hinder advancement of KSU research enterprise
- Develop an Intent to Submit Portal that sends email to ORI staff and to PI if status of Application is changed
- Develop a framework and related processes and policies to define partner engagement
- Develop resources to support faculty submission of SBIR/STTR grants
- Offer faculty training in proposal development
- Identify new potential partners
- Offer faculty training in technology transfer and establishing industry partnerships to faculty
- Establish at least one (1) new external partnership
- Offer faculty training in award administration
- Develop online faculty training modules to support proposal development and submission
- Develop an Automate Notification System that alerts PI and ORI teams about the end date and other important dates of the grant (more to be explore)