Supporting Research at UNE

Centers of Excellence
in Research and Scholarship

In 2009, the University of New England established four centers of excellence for research and scholarship. These university-wide centers build on existing strengths at the institution in marine science, neuroscience, public health, and global humanities.

The centers are designed to provide opportunities for collaborative research and scholarship programs that are competitive for interdisciplinary, multi-investigator and multi-institutional awards.  The centers are also designed to expand undergraduate research at UNE and explore opportunities for future Ph.D. programs.

In order to prepare the next generation of leaders in research and scholarship, the University of New England is seeking financial support to help secure the future of these centers.

• Planning and development funds to support the new research center during its start up phase. Priorities include funding to provide teaching release time for new faculty and supply/travel money to enable collection of preliminary data.
• Graduate fellowships to increase student participation in research. Financial support would significantly enhance both the quantity and competitiveness of UNE’s teaching assistantships, attracting top-rate student researchers.
• Endowed chair to bring senior-level research expertise to the center. Such an individual would raise the visibility of the institute, provide immediate grant revenues, and greatly facilitate our ability to attract more research-active junior faculty.
• Funding for undergraduate research (a combination of stipends, supplies, and travel funds). UNE emphasizes the importance of research for all undergraduates, and has established an under-graduate honors program that is bringing exceptional, motivated students to campus. Critical dollars can strengthen and underwrite this impressive project.
  

Below are brief descriptions of each center. Visit the links to find out more about the centers and funding opportunities.

If you would like more information on investing in the work of these centers, contact:
William Chance
Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement
(207) 221-4372
wchance@une.edu

Center for Community and Public Health

The Center for Community and Public Health represents an intersection of many different disciplines, ranging from social sciences to medicine. The center is developing programs in environmental health and chronic disease, with a focus on disease management and prevention that is local, regional and global in scope. Within the state of Maine, we address issues related to extreme disparities that exist in health status and access to care, particularly in the more northern parts of the state.

The Center also forms a nucleus to attract other researchers from UNE’s four colleges and create bridges between the other three centers of research excellence—land-sea interactions, neurosciences, and global humanities — each of which has its own components of public health.  Find out more.

Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences

The University of New England has a nascent program in the neurosciences, with faculty expertise that crosses between the colleges and includes not only the basic and clinical sciences, but also the liberal arts. By fostering research and education collaborations across a broad variety of disciplines, the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences endeavors to make innovative breakthrough discoveries in the neurosciences that lead to improvements in human health and wellbeing. This approach also offers unique training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students that have shared interests in the field.  Find out more.

Center for Land-Sea Interactions

The University of New England is ideally positioned to become a leader in the study of land-sea interactions and the relationships between oceanography, marine ecology, and human biology. On the same campus as Maine’s only medical school, UNE’s Marine Science Center is located at the mouth of the Saco River watershed that extends from the Mountains of New Hampshire to the Gulf of Maine. With established expertise in coastal oceanography and microbiology, research at UNE’s Center for Land-Sea Interactions will explore issues in “Oceans and Human Health” and related problems linking watersheds to ocean.  Find out more.

The Doherty Challenge

The Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation has generously awarded a $1 million leadership gift to establish and endow a senior-level marine research scientist at the University of New England.  A $3 million endowment is needed in order to fully support the research of the Doherty Endowed Chair. To reach this goal, the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation has issued UNE a vigorous challenge —to raise the remaining $2 million for the endowment, ensuring that the research of this high-level scientist is funded in perpetuity.
We need your support to meet this important challenge! Join us and help to protect and sustain one of the most important ecosystems on our planet, for all life on earth.  Find out more.

Center for Global Humanities

The Center for Global Humanities is a public forum dedicated to the study of human destiny in the 21st century. Because new discoveries in science and technology are changing our understanding of human nature and raising burning questions about the future of our civilization, the Center uses the lenses of the humanities to provide insight into this emerging human condition. Analyzing the state of our cultures today is as important as any medical or technological breakthrough.  Find out more.