Rice University joined a cohort of neuroscience researchers from the Texas Medical Center (TMC) during the “Meeting of the Minds” symposium at the Rice BioScience Research Collaborative’s event hall Oct. 17. Themed “Spotlight on NINDS Funding Opportunities and a Texas BRAIN Institute,” the symposium focused on the work taking place in partnership between the university and the partner institutions of the TMC.
Rice’s Nathan Cook, senior director of government relations, and Joel Resendez, director of state government relations, discussed the Texas Brain Health Initiative, highlighting the need for regional coordination and the potential for a state-funded program created to expedite innovation in mental health and brain research at the state’s higher education institutions to improve the health of Texans.
They placed an emphasis on the importance of collecting personal stories and data from various regions, including rural areas. They also provided insight to new Department of Defense initiatives on traumatic brain injury and cognitive performance, underscoring the need for collaboration and competitive research proposals due to budget constraints.
Megan Frankowski, program director in the division of translational research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) took the podium to shed light on funding and training opportunities available through the NIH and BRAIN Initiative. She highlighted the NIH’s multiple components, each with unique funding lines, and emphasized the importance of reaching out to program officers for tailored funding opportunities. Frankowski also covered training grants for students and postdoctoral students and mentioned the Blueprint MedTech program for medical device development.
Hosted by Rice ENRICH and the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative, the “Meeting of the Minds” networking series connects Rice faculty with the TMC’s neuroresearch experts through social and professional events, fostering collaborations and driving scientific discovery.
Since 2019, the ENRICH Office has provided $1.9 million in joint seed funding with TMC, supporting more than 50 research projects and advancing biomedical fields such as bioengineering, cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, cardiovascular health, neuroscience, behavioral health, general surgery, robotics, imaging, nursing and more. Partner institutions, including Houston Methodist, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, have matched these funds, resulting in an overall impact of $3.8 million.
Rice ENRICH supports the university’s overarching mission to enhance human health and wellness, advance the understanding of diseases and foster innovative research opportunities.
To find out more about Rice ENRICH, including resources for faculty and funding opportunities through partnerships with health-related institutions of the TMC, visit here.
