UNC Pembroke has been awarded a grant to provide students opportunities to engage in summer research training at the University of Michigan.

UNCP is among the 2019 recipients of the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School Minority Serving Institutions Outreach and Planning Grant.

“I would consider the University of Michigan among the most prominent research institutions in the country,” said Dr. Conner Sandefur, assistant professor in the Department of Biology at UNCP. “This is a great opportunity for our students to interact with other undergraduate research students throughout the country and meet graduate students at the University of Michigan.

“They will get to do research that, quite frankly, we don’t have the capacity to do here. It will be a rich and rewarding experience for them.”

The Rackham Graduate School launched a grant program to support relationship-building between graduate and professional programs and minority-serving institutions. UNCP is one of seven minority-serving institutions in the UNC System.

UNCP will collaborate with the faculty and staff at Michigan’s Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, including Dr. Dan Michele, the department chair, who will visit the campus in the fall. UNCP students must apply for the 12-week training program which will be offered the summer of 2020. One student will be selected.

“The University of Michigan’s goal is to increase collaboration opportunities with minority-serving institutions,” said Sandefur, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and was instrumental in securing the grant.

“This is a great way for UNCP faculty to connect with researchers at a university with a large research infrastructure.”