BRE-SPAD at Auburn University at Montgomery

Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) is an institution of emerging excellence that has highlighted biomedical sciences as a targeted growth/investment area. Coupled with the completion and recent occupancy of a new $37M science building that has greatly enhanced and expanded our biomedical teaching and research space, the university has also recently added a new graduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), and recruited multiple new tenure track assistant professors working in critical areas of research related to human health and biotechnology. Our prior SPAD grant was extremely effective in priming the aforementioned growth in biomedical research at AUM by: 1. Increasing student participation in research; 2. Committing resources to incentivize faculty research; 3. Investing in the Office of Sponsored Programs to grow Pre-Award to an effective size; and 4. Providing grant writing workshops for new grant writers. Among the successes is a 525% increase in federal grant applications since 2018, with much of the growth centered on NIH submissions. The over-arching goal of this proposal is to increase our success rates in these and future submissions. Thus, to elevate AUM to the next level, we propose further investments in biomedical research, student training and sponsored programs support. In Aim 1 we plan to expand our sponsored research program administrative capacity by growing post-award from a single half-time employee to include an additional full time employee; hiring a full time research compliance officer to oversee IBC, IACUC and IRB; and hiring a part-time Health Safety Technician to assist in conducting monthly inspections, waste disposal, etc., related to research compliance in biomedical and animal research areas. In Aim 2 we will enhance our biomedical research environment by providing more faculty grant writing support. Specifically, we need to expand current focus on helping new grant writers to include programs to assist seasoned grant writers that need help in refining specific aims, identifying collaborators, receiving peer critiques of proposal drafts, and addressing reviewer comments in preparing for resubmission. We will also develop a sustainable biomedical seminar series and add critical shared equipment purchases to support researchers across the biomedical arena. Finally, in Aim 3 we will establish a pilot research project program that will include four focus areas: 1) Funds to support research projects aimed at subsequent NIH grant applications; 2) Funds to support short term projects aimed at addressing reviewer critiques; 3) Research support for graduate students; and 4) Research support for undergraduate students. Project Number: 1UC2GM162936-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) | Principal Investigator: Douglas Leaman (+1 co-PI) | Institution: AUBURN UNIVERSITY AT MONTGOMERY, MONTGOMERY, AL | Award Amount: $554,945 | Activity Code: UC2 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 CDB-C (55)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11290153