Research & Innovation at Wayne State University has made incredible strides during the past decade, including more than doubling our total extramural sponsored project funding from $150 million in FY2013 to $352.6 million in FY2023. Research expenditures have followed this upward trend as well. University research expenditures have increased by 3.6% from 2022 with a total of $250.9 million recently reported for FY2023. According to the NSF’s 2023 Higher Education Research and Development Survey (most recent published ranking) Wayne State ranked 78th among public universities and 118th out of all U.S. colleges/universities..
Wayne State University is a member of the University Research Corridor, an alliance of Michigan's three largest research institutions that includes the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. The Corridor's objective is to play a key role in creating a vibrant Michigan economy that leverages the intellectual capital and work proactively to attract the knowledge economy businesses that can find the research activity that feeds new enterprise, educates the workforce and plants the seeds for the new industries of tomorrow.
Wayne State University has the highest levels of accreditation by the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs Inc., and assurances through the Office for Protection of Research Risks at the National Institutes of Health and through other national and local agencies.
In October 2021, The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health awarded Wayne State University $18.15 million over five years to establish a Center for Multiple Chronic Diseases Associated with Health Disparities: Prevention, Treatment, and Management that will use community-based interventions deployed from three research institutions to fight hypertension, heart failure and coronary heart disease in the Black population. The Center is a proactive versus reactive approach to reducing overwhelming cardiometabolic health disparities and downstream Black-White lifespan inequality in Detroit and Cleveland, two uniquely comparable cities.
Wayne State University received an Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) T32 training program grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health in 2021. This $2.5 million grant will aid in growing Wayne State's successful IMSD R25 graduate training program in biomedical sciences and behavioral research, which existed for many years and was led by Joseph C. Dunbar, Ph.D., professor of physiology and director of medical student research and innovation in Wayne State's School of Medicine, along with Rasheeda Zafar, Ph.D., IMSD program administrator. The IMSD T32 program will provide 10 graduate students a year with a structured academic community, additional career-development activities and individualized mentoring, allowing the diverse trainees to cultivate highly sought-after skills that will lead to successful careers in the biomedical sciences.
The university received a $1.97 NIH grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a T34 program, Maximizing Access to Research Careers. The program will support approximately 20 undergraduate students each year in a structured academic community that will provide additional career development activities and individualized mentoring to cultivate highly sought-after skills and prepare students to enter into Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. programs and careers in the biomedical sciences.
The university received a $1.2 million NIH grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a T32 program, Chemistry Biology Interface Training Program. The biomedical culture has placed greater emphasis on quantitative data analysis, rigor and reproducibility, and transparency to ensure quality and accuracy of research findings and safety to minimize risk to scientists and the environment. To take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to thoroughly dissect biological systems with high standards of rigor and many career perspectives, a biomedical work force capable of multi-disciplinary, team-driven, and problem-focused thinking is needed. In total, this modern world of biomedical research requires a rethinking of the Ph.D. training experience. To address the changing needs in biomedical work force training, Wayne State is utilizing this T32 training program for a Chemistry Biology Interface (CBI) training program to train the next generation of Ph.D. graduates that will form a strong scientific identity with discipline-specific skills and informed multi-disciplinary perspectives.
The Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State, along with the University of Michigan, successfully renewed the Michigan Center for Urban African Aging Research (MCUAAAR) grant, a collaborative research effort funded by the National Institute on Aging. It is one of six centers coordinated by the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research to empirically investigate and reduce health disparities between minority and non-minority older adults.
Other Wayne State programs related to health care include the School of Medicine, the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, the College of Nursing, and the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development, as well as research and clinical care affiliations and a strong partnership with the Henry Ford Hospital System. Wayne State is also home to the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute one of 41 nationwide NCI-designated comprehensive cancer institutes; the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics and the Children's Research Institute of Michigan, which supports a top-20 NIH-funded pediatric program in the only freestanding children's hospital in Michigan.
Wayne State University has a number of core research facilities available to scientists within the Wayne State community. This includes facilities in analytical chemistry, biocomputing, biostatistics, cell culture, clinical genetics, confocal microscopy, engineering technology, flow cytometry, genomics, imaging, metabolomics, proteomics, tissue biorepository, toxicology, and more.
The university offers a number of internal funding programs to assist faculty researchers in achieving success in obtaining external funding to conduct research, create scholarship, and perform creatively.
Wayne State University offers a mentoring seminar series, the Research Development Seminar Series, to jumpstart faculty, post-doc and student research careers.
Sponsored Program Administration provides Wayne State's faculty, staff and students with the resources to facilitate submission of proposals and administration of sponsored programs, private grants and gifts awarded to faculty.
The Office of Research Compliance oversees all areas of research compliance, including research with humans, animals, rDNA, radiation safety and chemical safety. The office prepares researchers to meet federal compliance regulations through the presentation of university-wide and department-based workshops related to research compliance.