Kinesiology Faculty Among Teams Receiving Interdisciplinary Research Grants
The goals of the grants are to empower creativity and strengthen the campus’ areas of interdisciplinary excellence.
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Kinesiology faculty members Douglas Martini and Ned Debold are among the 14 teams of UMass Amherst faculty and librarians who have been awarded Interdisciplinary Research Grants (IRG) for 2023 by the Provost's Office. In total, 57 IRG projects were submitted.
Assistant Professor Douglas Martini joins Assistant Professor Meghan Huber from the College of Engineering for a project titled "A Step into the Future: A Neural Investigation of Robotic Exoskeleton-Assisted Walking," while Professor Ned Debold will collaborate with Professor of Chemistry Dhandapani Venkataraman from the College of Natural Sciences on a project titled "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? Molecules to Modulate Cardiac Muscle Myosin Function." A complete list of projects and team members can be viewed on the provost’s website.
Interdisciplinary Research Grants (IRG) are offered to teams of faculty and librarians from at least two different schools or colleges within the university with the goals of empowering creativity, strengthening the campus’ areas of interdisciplinary excellence, promoting equitable collaborations and attracting external funding and other forms of recognition across our colleges and schools. The grants are offered in two categories: up to $20,000 and up to $50,000.
Offered in coordination with the vice chancellor for research and engagement and the deans, Serio announced the call for IRG proposals in March, stating, “Collaborative and interdisciplinary activities are areas in which my office can have particular impact by facilitating paths for faculty and librarians to innovate at the interfaces of their expertise and thereby have transformative impact on our world.”
The IRG program complements the recently announced Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards (LIRA) program, with LIRA supporting large-scale research initiatives and the IRGs supporting early-stage collaborations among faculty and librarians.