Georgia State Research Funding of $142 Million Is Third Highest in University History

ATLANTA—Georgia State University faculty have earned $142 million in research funding in fiscal year 2021, the third highest total in university history.

The funding comes from federal government agencies, private nonprofits, large corporations and the state of Georgia, among other sources. The total includes $44.8 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $14.6 million from the U.S. Department of Education, $11.5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and $8.2 million from the Georgia Department of Human Services.

Thirty-seven faculty members were awarded more than $1 million, a university record. Among the university’s top 20 grant recipients, half are women.

“In an incredibly challenging year during which many research projects were disrupted, reaching this level of investment is a testament to our community’s innovation and perseverance,” said Tim Denning, vice president for research and economic development. “Our faculty’s scholarship has made, and continues to make, a significant difference in people’s lives.”

Among the year’s key awards are several grants to support research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They include:

• $1.3 million from the NIH to Heather Bradley, assistant professor in the School of Public Health, to better understand barriers and motivations for participating in COVID-19 research among Black communities in Atlanta.
• $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Laura Shannonhouse, associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development, to reduce social isolation, loneliness and elevated suicide risk in racially diverse older adults, the demographic hardest hit by COVID-19.
• $500,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Georgia State’s Prevention Research Center to increase confidence in and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine among Blacks and the refugee, immigrant and migrant community in Clarkston, Ga.

The funding has also supported projects to advance scientific knowledge and address some of society’s most pressing challenges in disciplines ranging from education to public health to astronomy.

In the College of Education and Human Development, associate professor Stephanie Cross received $10.4 million from the U.S. Department of Education to redesign and expand a teacher residency program that recruits, prepares and supports new and experienced teachers in the Atlanta Public Schools system.

Faculty in the School of Public Health were awarded $3.5 million from the National Cancer Institute to help eliminate child secondhand smoke exposure and reduce cancer disparities in homes involved with the child protection system.

Distinguished University Professor of Psychology Vince Calhoun, who directs the university’s the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science, received $3 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop new strategies to identify mood disorders using brain mapping.

In the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Chris Basler was awarded $2.9 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study unique features of Ebola and Marburg viruses that control how the virus escapes immune responses.

The university’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) in Mount Wilson, Calif., was awarded $2.5 million from the NSF to support a new mobile telescope to the CHARA Array, the largest optical interferometer in the world.

Georgia State is one of 115 public and private universities in the Carnegie Foundation’s elite category of R1: Highest Research Activity. For the past four years, the university has been the highest-ranked institution without an engineering, medical or agricultural school in the NSF’s Higher Education Research and Development survey, a nationally recognized barometer of university research activity.