Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
The School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, was awarded a $250,000 planning grant from the Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church to advance maternal mental health during the postpartum period. With the new funding, researchers at the HBCU will develop a context-specific model of care designed to strengthen the clinical, social, economic, and political ecosystem surrounding postpartum maternal mental health. The model will seek to reduce silos and gaps in care by aligning four key areas of intervention: clinical practice, institutional processes, community-based initiatives, and advocacy and policy.
The U.S. Department of War has awarded a five-year, $10 million grant to North Carolina A&T State University to establish Accelerate-DAQ, a project focused on expanding the HBCU’s defense research capacity in artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber resilience, and quantum systems. The project will facilitate new opportunities for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, undergraduates, and research staff, as well as open the door for more research in sensitive or classified areas.
The University of the District of Columbia received a $4.99 million award to continue the HBCU’s work through the National Science Foundation Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology program. The renewal will provide five years of funding for the HBCU’s Center for Nanotechnology Research and Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. With its new funds, the center will build on its success in four research areas: molecular spintronics, powder-based electrochemical additive manufacturing, nanoscale and microscale thermal management, and molecular catalysis.
Kentucky State University received a $399,254 grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a new certificate program in sustainability. Open to students of all majors, the interdisciplinary program draws from foundations in engineering, technology, agriculture, business, and other sciences. Students enrolled in the program will learn to work across disciplinary and workforce boundaries, apply systems thinking, collaborate with community partners, and respond to changing conditions.
The College of Engineering and the TSU SMART AI Innovation Technology Center at Tennessee State University have received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to transform undergraduate STEM education through artificial intelligence and hands-on research. The five-year initiative aims to build a coordinated, stage-based engineering pathway from pre-freshman through senior year to boost math readiness, course success, and workforce preparation.
