UTA has awarded four seed grants to interdisciplinary research projects that address growing problems such as loneliness among the elderly, the need for sustainable green education spaces, the health crisis among urban American Indians or the mechanisms behind heart failure among the elderly.
"All these awards represent important research innovations and could create a real impact in society," said Duane Dimos, UTA vice president for research. "By taking advantage of the multiple perspectives offered by interdisciplinary research, the winning teams have proposed new ways of attacking real world problems, demonstrating yet again the commitment of our faculty to the highest level of scholarship."
The winning proposals include:
Jon Weidanz, associate vice president for research and manager of the program, underscored the role that these projects play in strengthening the University's focus on the themes of health and the human condition, sustainable urban communities, global environmental impact and data-driven discovery, all tenets of the Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact.
"UTA is building multidisciplinary expertise around these four themes as they cover most of the pressing needs of our society," Weidanz said. "Multidisciplinary research also has a higher impact and makes us more competitive for externally funded grant opportunities."
The Interdisciplinary Research Awards provide $20,000 to help the research groups advance their efforts to the level where the team can compete for externally funded, competitive grants from the corporate world and agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the Department of Defense, and others.
Some of last year's inaugural Interdisciplinary Research Program winners have already disclosed inventions to the University's Office of Technology Management, which is evaluating them with respect to patentability and marketability. Other groups are in the process of publishing studies in reputable journals or developing papers for conferences, or have applied for additional funding opportunities.
"These grants have already helped raise the profile of the University as a leader in research and a fount of innovation and entrepreneurship," Weidanz concluded. "We are proud of our faculty's commitment to excellence in research."
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About The University of Texas at Arlington
The University of Texas at Arlington is a Carnegie Research-1 "highest research activity" institution of about 55,000 students in campus-based and online degree programs and is the second-largest institution in The University of Texas System. U.S. News & World Report ranks UTA fifth in the nation for undergraduate diversity. The University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is ranked as the top four-year college in Texas for veterans on Military Times' 2016 Best for Vets list. Visit http://www.uta.edu to learn more, and find UTA rankings and recognition at http://www.uta.edu/uta/about/rankings.php .
For more on the Strategic Plan, see Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact.