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NIH renews grant for VCU center that takes new treatments from basic research to the community
April 10, 2023
The $27.5 million award is the largest NIH grant in VCU history and comes amid a transformational year for the university’s research enterprise.
Virginia Commonwealth University won its largest grant ever from the National Institutes of Health, a seven-year, $27.5 million grant to renew funding for a center focused on moving new therapeutics from laboratory bench to community treatment and extending its reach to reduce health disparities across the region.
This latest grant to the C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research allows the center to grow a new regional partnership to advance health equity through translational science that actively engages diverse communities, train a diverse research workforce and support the rapid implementation of innovative clinical and translational science that advances the scientific study of human health.
“VCU is a model of what a public research university and health system should be — responsive to the pressing needs of our communities and immersed in research that solves vexing problems, addresses inequities and lifts and saves lives,” said Michael Rao, Ph.D., president of VCU and VCU Health. “This latest investment by the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences will support our regional collaboration to turn research into treatments for patients, engage our diverse communities and train the next generation of caring and thoughtful clinical researchers.”
The grant renewal is the latest institutional achievement for VCU’s research enterprise in the past year. Last fall, the university announced that it had received an historic high of over $405 million in sponsored research funding for the previous fiscal year. VCU was named No. 50 among the nation’s top public research universities and earned multiple designations in recognition of the school’s high caliber of innovation and entrepreneurship. A year ago, VCU received its largest gift ever, a $104 million donation to fund a new institute in its efforts to stop, prevent and reverse liver disease.
