Texas Southern University (TSU) was awarded nearly $5 million by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to support advances in research and innovation.

The grant is part of the Research and Development Infrastructure (RDI) program aimed to provide funds to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), to transform their research infrastructure, including strengthening research productivity, faculty expertise, physical infrastructure, and partnerships leading to increases in external funding. The grant from the RDI program is part of the broader initiative by the ED which has allocated $93 million in grants to institutions nationwide. TSU is one of twenty colleges and universities awarded as part of the RDI program.

“We are honored to be among the institutions selected for the Research and Development Infrastructure (RDI) Grant Program,” said Dr. Michelle Penn-Marshall, Vice President for Research and Innovation. “The investment from the U.S. Department of Education will provide significant support to continue to expand the research infrastructure on our campus. We are committed to strategically deploying these resources to propel our institution through the impactful research initiatives for which TSU has historically been known and revered. Dr. Ivy Poon (co-Program Director) and I look forward to working with the talented interdisciplinary RDI team leads, Drs. Hongmei Wang, Erica Cassimere, Peltier-Glaze, and Veronica Ajewole. Together, and with the support of TSU’s current dynamic faculty and staff, we will increase research productivity campus wide, provide additional grant and contract support staff, hire research faculty, launch new graduate program, provide grant and biosketch/curriculum vitae writing workshops, host research seminars, train graduate students, and establish strategic academic and industrial partnerships.”

With a renewed emphasis on research, demonstrated by growth in capabilities and investment, TSU announced $44 million in research awards for Fiscal Year ‘23. That total represents a 48-percent increase in awards over a two-year period.

TSU is one of 11 HBCUs to hold the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education’s coveted status as a Doctoral University of High Research Activity (R2). The University aims to leverage the funds from this grant award to achieve Doctoral Universities with Very High Research Activity (R1) status.