Letter from the Chair, Kansas IDeA Committee

Welcome to the Kansas Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Web site, which is designed to show how this national program impacts biomedical research in Kansas. I’m pleased to report that since 2000, Kansas has received notices of awards from the IDeA program totaling more than $120 million. Investigators have now doubled this with new National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant awards based on the IDeA investments.

Thus, the IDeA program is giving an enormous boost to biomedical research in Kansas by helping secure millions in grant support over the past seven years.

The IDeA program is supported by the National Center for Research Resources at the NIH, which gives Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) to enhance biomedical and behavioral research. The program is designed to foster health-related research and enhance the competitiveness of investigators at institutions in states that historically rank in the lower half of biomedical research funding from the NIH. By supporting research infrastructure enhancement and faculty development, the IDeA program currently increases the competitiveness of investigators from 23 states and Puerto Rico.

The IDeA program accomplishes this through two main components: IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) and Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grants. The INBRE’s objectives are to 1) bring together institutions within a state to establish a network; 2) provide competitive funding to the state-based network; 3) support institutional alterations and renovations; 4) provide funding for modern laboratory equipment; and 5) assist in the recruitment of new faculty. The objectives of the COBRE funding are to augment and strengthen an institution’s biomedical research capacity and to develop a multidisciplinary research center with a thematic science focus. COBRE also enables an institution to develop resources needed to conduct state-of-the-art biomedical research, with the ultimate goal of preparing investigators to compete successfully for other NIH research grants.

Goals of the Kansas INBRE grant are to 1) inspire outstanding undergraduates to pursue careers in biomedical research; 2) enhance research capacity through faculty development and retention; and 3) expand the biomedical research infrastructure among participating universities. Kansas COBRE grants enable institutions to establish centers of excellence in specific biomedical research areas, with the ultimate goal of preparing investigators to compete successfully for other NIH research grants. These areas include epithelial cell physiology, protein structure-function relationships, drug development, infectious disease, and liver health and disease.

Thank you for taking time to visit this site, where you can learn more about the IDeA program’s impact on Kansas and the promise it holds for improving human health.

Best regards,

Joan S. Hunt, PhD, DSc
Chair, Kansas IDeA Committee
University of Kansas Vice Chancellor for Biomedical Research Infrastructure
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
3083 KLSIC Building
University of Kansas Medical Center
3901 Rainbow Blvd. – Mail Stop 3050
Kansas City, KS 66160
Tel: 913-588-7270
Fax: 913-588-7180
Email: jhunt@kumc.edu