University of Memphis - Meharry Medical College

Program to Enhance Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research (PECIR)

In December 2020, the University of Memphis, Meharry Medical College and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare announced a collaboration to increase the number of Black primary care doctors across the state and increase research collaborations among the institutions.

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:

“Assessing Vaccine Hesitancy for Flu, HPV and COVID-19 Vaccines in Tennessee” – Seok Won Jin, PhD (UofM), and Jennifer Cunningham-Erves, PhD, MPH, MAEd, MS and Maureen Sanderson, PhD, MPH (MMC)
“Inform Future Delivery of Trauma Informed Care in Community-Based HIV Service Organizations (CBO), Faith-Based Organizations (FBO), the Local Health Department (HD), and Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (FQHC)” – Latrice Pichon, PhD (UofM) and L. Lauren Brown, PhD, LCSW (MMC)
“A Focus Group Study of the Communication and Educational Needs of Parents and Patients with Sickle Cell Disease or Sickle Cell Traits” – Amanda Young, PhD (UofM), and Shyamali Mukherjee, PhD, MS (MMC)
“Elucidating Mechanisms for the Sexually Dimorphic Response to Diet Induced Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome” – Melissa Puppa, PhD (UofM), and Smita Misra, PhD, MS (MMC)
“Discovery of Exosome-based Molecular Biomarkers for Predicting Prostate Cancer Impending Metastasis” – Yongmei Wang, PhD (UofM), and Zhenbang Chen, PhD, MS (MMC)
“Eliminating Socially-Driven Infant Obesity Disparities in Minority Communities of Memphis and Nashville: A Community-Based Intervention” – Angela Antipova, PhD (UofM), and Dr. Flora Ukoli, MD, MPH (MMC)

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.

Learn more about the awarded projects.

PECIR Networking Lightning Talks Event

PURPOSE

To stimulate innovative, interdisciplinary, team-based research that involves investigators from Meharry Medical College (Meharry) and University of Memphis (UofM). The Award is designed to promote new lines of research and provide seed money to give rise to future external funding. It is not intended as bridging funds or a mechanism to extend ongoing funded research.

ELIGIBILITY

To be considered for a Meharry/UofM PECIR Award, each proposal must include, at a minimum, one faculty member from each participating campus (Meharry and UofM). Adjunct and visiting faculty can participate but are not eligible to be PIs.

HOW TO LOCATE COLLABORATORS

If you are looking for a collaborator for this project, please fill out this Excel sheet and return it to cbehles@memphis.edu. The data received will be compiled into a secure, online Microsoft OneDrive document, to which access will be limited to only those who have participated. Additionally, a lightning talk networking session is scheduled for April 16th at 9:00am to help acquaint Meharry and UofM faculty. To RSVP for the lightning talk, fill out this survey.

Once your completed Excel sheet is received, you will be sent a link to gain access to the list of investigators interested in collaborating on a PECIR Award. Once you have access, check the database often to view newly added investigators.

AWARD LEVEL

Resource funds contributed by both institutions are available for up to five (5) Awards, for up to $50,000, for one year (12 months). No-cost-extension requests will be evaluated by the Leadership Team at year-end.

INSTITUTIONAL COMPLIANCE APPROVALS

Approvals for research involving human subjects, animals, biohazards, etc. must be received prior to release of PECIR funding. Compliance approvals are not required to apply for a PECIR Award.

REQUIRED APPLICATION MATERIALS and DEADLINE

See Call For Applications for all required materials. All materials should be submitted to researchdev@memphis.edu as a single PDF by May 1st, 2021

QUESTIONS

For questions about this program, email cbehles@memphis.edu (UofM) or jelzey@mmc.edu (Meharry)

Division of Research and Innovation