BRE-SPAD at Western Washington University
openNIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Abstract
Western Washington University (WWU) seeks BRE-SPAD funding to strengthen its research
infrastructure and expand faculty and student engagement in biomedical research. As a
Predominantly Undergraduate Institution (PUI) with a strong commitment to liberal arts
education, WWU has seen steady growth in research activities in the past several years.
Research expenditures have almost doubled in less than a decade from $8.5 million in 2014 to
$15.9 million in 2023. Yet, WWU’s biological, biomedical, and health sciences R&D
expenditures were only $864,000, representing just 5% of total institutional R&D expenditures.
WWU will use BRE-SPAD funding to address several institutional challenges, including high
teaching loads, lack of key research equipment, limited pre- and post-award administrative
support, no central system for recruiting students into undergraduate research opportunities,
and a lack of dedicated research development programming. The proposed SPAD initiative at
WWU will enhance research capacity through the following specific aims: 1) Improve
sponsored programs administration capacity by hiring a new research administrator, training
all pre- and post-award staff on NIH proposal submission and award management best
practices, and learning from an external evaluation process to improve overall research
administration and research development services. 2) Enhance WWU’s research environment
by establishing the Viking Biomedical Research Institute (VBR), hiring a program manager,
purchasing key biomedical research equipment and supplies, training biomedical faculty in
effective NIH research design and proposal writing, incentivizing faculty to develop new course-
based undergraduate research experiences (CURES), and creating a centralized mentoring hub
for students interested in pursuing biomedical research. and 3) Launch a pilot research project
funding program by offering pilot awards, providing faculty release time to focus on research
activities, providing resources for undergraduate student participation in the research projects,
and enabling faculty to collect data and conduct preliminary analyses that will make subsequent
NIH proposals more competitive. By achieving these aims, WWU expects to catalyze a
significant increase in the number of faculty – and faculty from a wider range of disciplines –
who submit NIH proposals, growth in biomedical research expenditures, increased student
participation in biomedical research, an increase in the number of students who graduate with
biomedical and health-related degrees and qualifications to enter the regional biomedical
workforce, and the establishment of a sustainable and robust biomedical research enterprise.
Up to $599K
health research