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The Office of Research Development (ORD) has announced that 12 projects led by UMass Amherst researchers have received Faculty Research/Healey Endowment Grants (FRG) for 2026. Administered by ORD under the vice chancellor for research and engagement, the FRG program promotes research, scholarly, and creative activities in all disciplines and fields across the university campus. Additionally, the grant program supports projects with high potential for future publication and funding from outside of the university, or recognition of excellence.

Full-time UMass Amherst faculty members whose appointments extend beyond the current academic year are eligible to apply for up to $20,000 in FRG grants, provided they have not received two previous FRG awards, have yet to submit a final report for a previous FRG award, or have more than $40,000 in unrestricted, uncommitted funds.

More details about the FRG program can be found on the Research and Engagement website. Applications for 2026-27 grants are projected to open again this fall. For more information, email [email protected].
 

2026 Faculty Research Grant/Healey Endowment Grant Projects and Recipients:

Leontine Alkema, Biostatistics and Epidemiology
“Bringing Modern Causal Methods to Applied Women’s Health Research”

Jeungok Choi, Nursing (Co-PIs: Michael Lepore and Joohyun Chung, Nursing)
“Empowering Community Asian Older Adults Living with Dementia through Chatbot-Enhanced Individual Cognitive Stimulation Therapy”

John Clegg, Economics (Co-PI: Lawrence King, Economics)
“Measuring the impact of deindustrialization: A linked microdata approach”

Chase Cornelison, Biomedical Engineering
“Waves among the stars: How fluid flow on astrocytes affects the blood-brain barrier”

Michal Horny, Health Promotion and Policy
“Development of the Conceptual Model of Patient Decision-Making under Cost Uncertainty”

Joshua Liddy, Kinesiology
“Measuring individual differences in temporal sensitivity to sensory prediction errors during implicit adaptation”

Beatriz Lorenzo, Electrical and Computer Engineering
“STELLAR: A Scalable Software Simulator for Cross-Domain Satellite–Terrestrial Edge Computing Networks”

Lenore Palladino, Economics
“Examining the Rise of Unregulated Finance”

Kalpana Poudel Tandukar, Nursing (Co-PI: Krishna Poudel, Health Promotion and Policy)
“Mindfulness intervention to improve mental, emotional, and social well-being among pregnant Ukrainian refugees in the US”

Zach Sheffler, Operations and Information Management (Co-PIs: Maya Mudambi and Sichun Zhao, Operations and Information Management)
“Dynamic vs. Static Visuals in Online Health Messaging: Effects on Perceived Credibility in Memetic Formats”

Gregory Spiridopoulos, Music and Dance (Co-PI: Ardila Gonzalo, Music and Dance)
“High Places-Concerto for Solo Trombone and Orchestra, commission, world premiere and recording”

Roopa Vasudevan, Art
“Core Memory”