University Of Memphis: University Of Memphis And Meharry Medical College Launch PECIR Program, Driving Research Collaborations

Press release from the University of Memphis:

June 9, 2021

In accordance with this effort, the University of Memphis and Meharry Medical College
created the Program to Enhance Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research (PECIR).
The purpose of PECIR is to stimulate innovative, interdisciplinary, team-based research
that involves investigators from Meharry Medical College (MMC) and the University
of Memphis (UofM).

The inaugural PECIR Call for Applications was released in spring 2021. The $50,000
research award is designed to promote new lines of research and provide seed money
to give rise to future external funding opportunities. 

A virtual Lightning Talk session was held in April to establish and grow collaborative
interdisciplinary research networking between faculty members from both institutions.
Faculty interested in applying for the PECIR research awards were given the opportunity
to share a three-minute presentation about their research and research interests. 

Ultimately, 11 teams comprised of faculty from both institutions responded to the
inaugural PECIR call and six were selected for funding.

The six selected projects and their principal investigators from the two institutions
are:

Funded projects and teams will have one year to build preliminary data, with the intention
of the pursuit of external funding to continue the development of their work.   

“This is the start of an exciting longer-term research partnership between our two
institutions,” said Dr. Jasbir Dhaliwal, executive vice president of Research & Innovation
at the University of Memphis. “Science is inherently collaborative, and it is imperative
that we pool our research capabilities to tackle the big health and medical challenges
facing our communities. It is my belief that these research teams will be successful
in attracting significant competitive research support from the National Institutes
of Health given the focus of the projects.”           

Meharry’s vice president for Research and Innovation Dr. Anil Shanker added, “These
initial pilot research projects between Meharry and UofM faculty members will jump-start
promising collaborations with potential impact on health equity in the populations
we serve.”

The lightning talks in April showcased the research of 19 faculty from the University
of Memphis and 18 from Meharry Medical College.

For more information on this collaboration or on the PECIR Program, contact Dr. Nichole
Saulsberry-Scarboro at tnslsbrr@memphis.edu or Jared Elzey at jelzey@mmc.edu.

This press release was produced by the University of Memphis. The views expressed here are the author’s own.