Collaborative Research Grants Awarded to Nine Research Teams

Nine research teams earned $5,000 each to undertake interdisciplinary research. The Provost's Collaborative Research Grant was established in 2015 to help faculty with research and scholarly production by incentivizing disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration. Faculty teams may receive up to $5,000, with preference given to projects involving collaboration between two or more researchers from different colleges. Applicants can be either junior or senior faculty (tenure-track, tenured or non-tenure track in professorial positions) actively pursuing a research agenda. The next competition will run in fall 2022.

The 2021-22 projects and awardees:

• "A Maternal Health Hackathon: Co-Designing with Diverse Communities to Improve Birth Outcomes in Arkansas," Bree McMahon, assistant professor of graphic design; Kelly Johnson, assistant professor of nursing; Allison Scott, associate professor of nursing; Alison Place, assistant professor of graphic design; Cara Osborne, assistant professor of strategy, entrepreneurship and venture innovation.
• "Establishing Interactions Between Microgels and Viruses Using Φ as a Model for Other Lipid-enveloped Viruses," Susann Stiegler, professor of chemistry and biochemistry; Kristen Gibson, professor of food safety and microbiology.
• "The Evolution of Global Value Chain Networks: Drivers, Consequences, and the Impact of Global Economic Uncertainty," Ka Zeng, professor of political science and director of international studies; Jingping Gu, associate professor of economics; Raja Kali, professor and department chair of economics.
• "Does the Use of Poetry in Science Courses Enhance Attitude Towards Achievement in Science?" Albert Cheng, assistant professor of education policy; Stephen Burgin, associate professor of secondary science education; Kate Walker, instructor of biological sciences.
• "Developing Psychophysiological and Physics-based Data Analytic Techniques to Study Intra-individual Variability in Post-Stroke Aphasia," Mohammad Haghighi, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders; Mahmoud Moradi, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
• "Discovering Neural Mechanisms of Animal Behavior," Woodrow Shew, associate professor of biological sciences; Erica Westerman, assistant professor of biological sciences.
• "The Arkansas Accent Project: A Documentary," Ben Corbett, assistant professor of theatre; Ringo Jones, assistant professor of communication.
• "Paleontological Predictive Modeling in the Luangwa River Valley, Zambia," Lucas Delazene, associate professor of anthropology; Carla Klehm, research assistant professor with the Center for Advance Spatial Technologies (CAST).
• "Science Meets Communication: Identifying Effective Science Communication Strategies in the Digital Age," Jee Young Chung, assistant professor of journalism and strategic media; Young Hye Song, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.