A new grants program administered by the Office of the Vice President for Research has awarded nearly $500,000 across seven University of Michigan faculty-led projects that advance interdisciplinary research teams.  

Projects supported by the Building Better Futures grant program, a new offering within OVPR’s Research Catalyst and Innovation program, include efforts to design informal housing retrofits that improve health conditions in the global south and assist farmers in adapting their work in real time to weather variability and vulnerability. 

“These projects are designed to engage with communities directly, so that research focused on improving lives can be undertaken and advanced in partnership – to ensure that the work is use-inspired and impactful from both the perspectives of our researchers and the communities and constituencies whom we serve,” said Geoffrey Thün, associate vice president for research, social sciences, humanities and the arts.

The Building Better Futures grant program — created to support and propel innovative interdisciplinary research and scholarly inquiry that advances knowledge around complex societal matters and to catalyze new research directions at U-M — is jointly administered by OVPR and the National Center for Institutional Diversity.

“OVPR supports interdisciplinary research that tackles society’s most complex challenges, central to everyday life, including health and wellbeing, education and skill-building and socioeconomic mobility,” said Arthur Lupia, vice president for research and innovation. “By empowering our researchers to work on projects that are at the core of our vital public mission, we are striving to make a meaningful difference across our state, nation and world.”

The seven selected Building Better Futures research projects are:

Learning to Take Action: Understanding and Supporting Teachers’ Instruction through a Professional Learning Community

Principal investigator: Deborah Rivas-Drake, professor of psychology, LSA, and Stephanie J. Rowley Collegiate Professor, Marsal Family School of Education

Goal: This research will leverage an emerging partnership with Ann Arbor Public Schools to explore how a professional learning community designed to enhance educators’ understanding of racism and xenophobia may shape their instructional practices.

The Impact of Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis on Household Employment and Insurance Status

Principal Investigators: Erin F. Carlton, clinical associate professor of pediatrics, Medical School; and Nora Becker, assistant professor of internal medicine, Medical School

Goal: This study will examine how a child’s new diagnosis of type 1 diabetes impacts household employment and insurance coverage. It will launch a new body of research seeking to assess the variation in financial impacts of pediatric chronic conditions, estimate how changes in caregiver employment impact health outcomes and health care utilization and engage stakeholders and policymakers to develop new interventions to improve family financial stability and health outcomes for children with chronic conditions.

Collaborative Design for Enhanced Communication – CoDec

Principal Investigators: Emily Dove-Medows, assistant professor of nursing, School of Nursing; and Francesca Williamson, assistant professor of learning health sciences, Medical School

Goal: This project will co-design and collaborate with obstetric care providers and patients to develop an arts-based provider training intervention designed to improve communication practices with the goal of improving rapport between pregnant women and obstetric providers, therefore improving health equity and outcomes during pregnancy and beyond.

Laying the Groundwork for Better Futures in Washtenaw County

Principal Investigators: Rita Chin, Louise Tilly Collegiate Professor of European History, and professor of history, LSA; and Robert Mickey, associate professor of political science, LSA

Goal: In partnership with the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners’ Advisory Council on Reparations, this project will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of faculty from the College of Engineering, School of Social Work, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and LSA. It will illuminate and document a history of race-based policymaking and structural racism in Washtenaw County, offering a contrast to the bulk of historical and social science literature on race in the U.S. North that focuses on large cities. This research will support Washtenaw County’s efforts to craft informed plans for a better future for all its residents.

Co-Developing Mobile Phone Applications to Increase Inclusivity and Effectiveness for Smallholder Farmers in India

Principal Investigators: Meha Jain, associate professor of environment and sustainability, SEAS; and Elizabeth Bondi-Kelly, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, College of Engineering

Goal: This project will leverage AI and mobile phone technologies, along with co-design principles, to design an information advisory system to aid smallholder farmers in adapting to weather variability caused by climate change. The team will leverage interdisciplinary collaboration across the fields of geography, computer science, ecology and Earth system science to identify how mobile phone applications can be designed to be more effective and inclusive.

Mobilizing Knowledge to Mitigate the Health Impacts of Heat on Residents of Self-Built and Precarious Housing

Principal Investigators: Ana Paula Pimentel Walker, associate professor of architecture and urban and regional planning, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning;  Carina Gronlund, research associate professor of epidemiology, School of Public Health; and Lars Junghans associate professor of architecture, Taubman College 

Goal: This project aims to ameliorate the impacts of indoor heat that negatively impacts the health of individuals living in self-built housing within informal settlements in Latin America. The project will work closely with residents and collective housing movements to prototype housing retrofits that lower indoor temperature and humidity. By improving the effectiveness of various passive cooling strategies, this research aims to provide evidence-based support to local and regional governments, foundations and international development agencies regarding the necessity and health benefits of heat-resilient housing improvement programs.

Transforming Neonatal Intensive Care Through Microscale Blood Monitoring

Principal Investigators: Karl Desch, clinical associate professor of pediatrics, Medical School; and David T. Burke, professor of human genetics, Medical School

Goal: This project aims to develop a microliter-scale, point-of-care device for the assessment of blood samples from patients in the neonatal intensive care unit. The device will expand advanced blood monitoring technologies in neonatal intensive care by designing microscale systems that require only minimal sample volumes, making them suitable for even the most vulnerable populations.