Accomplishments

Students with the UB Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences work at the Community Health Fair.

Through its Top 25 Ambition, UB is advancing its mission-driven priorities with the aim of making a profound difference on communities locally, nationally and globally.

To that end, UB's recent accomplishments include the following:

Accomplishments

Flagship University Designation

  • In January 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul designated UB a flagship university of the SUNY system
  • Flagship universities set the standard to which other institutions aspire
  • Although UB has long been considered a de facto flagship of the SUNY system, this formal designation poises UB for even greater success in:
    • attracting and retaining the very best faculty, students, business and industry to the region
    • securing even more federal research funding    
    • catalyzing further growth and innovation across business and industry

AI Institute for Exceptional Education

  • $20 million National Science Foundation grant to establish a national AI institute
  • This insitute will develop advanced artificial intelligence solutions that identify and assist young children with speech and/or language processing challenges
  • Interdisciplinary team will seek to: 
    • address the nationwide shortage of speech-language pathologists
    • provide services to children at an increased risk of falling behind in their academic and socio-emotional development
  • Grant awarded in January 2023

Clinical and Translational Science Award Renewal

  • $21.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health is enabling UB researchers to further investigations into the most pressing health problems and catalyze critical medical breakthroughs into enhanced patient care
  • Five-year grant builds on the successes UB achieved with the original, $15 million NIH award, including:
    • tripling the number of clinical trials UB researchers perform
    • doubling the number of underrepresented minorities who participate in UB clinical trials
  • With the new grant, UB is:
    • engaging with Buffalo residents to reduce health disparities through UB's Community Health Equity Research Institute
    • developing Community Engagement Studios where researchers meet with patients to better design studies
    • developing electronic means to better identify and recruit patients for clinical trials

Department of Indigenous Studies

  • With a $3.2 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, UB's College of Arts and Sciences has created a new department focused on:
    • humanities-centered research
    • educational programs
    • addressing key issues central to indigenous life in the region
  • Anchors an Indigenous Research Center and serves as a hub for broader indigenous inclusion
  • Builds upon UB's 50-year tradition of indigenous scholarship
  • Grant awarded in 2020

Community Health Equity Research Institute

  • A community partnership dedicated to advancing understanding of the root causes of health disparities and developing research-based solutions
  • Focused on health equity across the predominantly African-American neighborhoods encompassing Buffalo's East Side
  • UB faculty from 10 academic units involved
  • Community-based participatory research approach engages the community in:
    • driving the research agenda
    • participating in the design and conduct of studies
    • benefiting from the results
  • Launched in December 2019
  • Harnessing UB's AI capabilities to advance human-machine systems that can address complex cognitive tasks. 
  • Aims to customize treatments to improve patient outcomes and to develop the next generation of autonomous and intelligent transportation systems.
  • Also focused on examining AI’s cultural, social and economic impacts.
  • Launched in September 2018
  • Transformed research institute integrates clinical care, research and education to combat substance use disorders
  • Multidisiplinary approach with a focus on combating the opiate addiction epidemic
  • Faculty from seven UB decanal units and the College of Arts & Sciences involved
  • Renamed in 2018, with CRIA research scientists joining the departments of psychiatry, pharmacology and toxicology and psychology to collaborate more extensively with UB faculty

Women's Health Initiative Extension

  • $8.1 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue the nationwide study on the health outcomes of postmenopausal women
  • With this third extension of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) through 2027, the WHI will have continuous funding for 35 years
  • Approximately 70,000 women in the region are still active participants in the study 25 years later
  • The most significant outcome of the WHI is the finding that hormone therapy led to an increased risk of a number of conditions including coronary heart disease, stroke, breast cancer and blood clots