Florida International University researchers are at the forefront of ensuring the health and well-being of underserved communities don’t slip through the cracks.

In 2017, FIU’s Community-Based Research Institute won a $13.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to build the Research Center in a Minority Institution at FIU (FIU-RCMI), which focused on world-class, community-partnered health disparities research and training. In recognition of the FIU-RCMI’s exceptional performance and its plans for expansion, NIH just renewed the FIU-RCMI with a 5-year, $19.4 million grant, which is the university’s largest NIH award to date.

“The FIU-RCMI has and will continue to drive FIU’s outstanding growth in research capacity in the area of health disparities,” said FIU President Kenneth A. Jessell. “Over the past five years, our faculty have demonstrated a passion and commitment to the kind of work that has a positive impact on the health of our community and the world.”

Since its inception, the FIU-RCMI has supported and mentored dozens of post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty, and other early-stage investigators. The three major research projects funded by the new grant are led by researchers who received mentoring and training through the center.

“These are research projects led by investigators from backgrounds underrepresented in science, given that all are women and several further identify as minorities,” said Eric F. Wagner, FIU-RCMI’s principal investigator and professor of social work at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. “These are brilliant researchers who have overcome historical and systemic obstacles to obtaining NIH funding and are using science to make the world a better place.”