Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine received an $8 million grant to construct a new Heritage Translational Research Center.
The construction of the new facility will cost $66.9 million, according to an Ohio News article.
HCOM Associate Dean of Research and Innovation Darlene Berryman said the grant was highly competitive through the National Institutes of Health Office of Research Infrastructure.
“The Heritage College submitted a grant application for the C06 construction grant,” Berryman wrote in an email. “It’s given to support biomedical discovery by helping to fund improvements to an institution’s research infrastructure.”
Berryman said she oversees all research and has been involved in the overall design and construction plans for the new facility. She even served as the project director and lead on the C06 grant.
The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, a private foundation based in Columbus, also contributed to the new Heritage Translational Research Center.
“Our mission is to improve the health and quality of life in the community through education, research and service consistent with our osteopathic heritage,” Terri Donlin Huesman, president and CEO of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, said.
Huesman said the funding provided by the foundation for the new facility is part of a project called Vision 2020, which invests in Ohio University’s heritage college, centering around its research enterprise.
The new research center has been a priority for the foundation as it will help bring more researchers together for collaboration, more specifically from the Diabetes Institute, Huesman said.
“If you bring people together and collaborate, there's greater opportunity, impact and possibilities relative to translation research into findings that impact the community, which is important to the foundation,” Huesman said.
Berryman said the progress made within the Heritage College can be credited to the support from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation.
“For more than 10 years, the Heritage College has been making great strides to enhance our research capacity,” Berryman wrote. “With the generous support of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, we have expanded our research teams, hired research faculty and boosted opportunities for student research.”
The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation is contributing to other projects within the university’s HCOM program, including a scholarship that will reduce medical student debt.
“We are working on, relative to Vision 2020, a student scholarship,” Huesman said. “In addition to research, student scholarship support is a priority for the foundation.”
Huesman said the new research facility will also offer new research opportunities for OU students and how they can engage with the community.
“It will create more opportunities for student research, which is incredibly important for students to further develop analytical skills, remain competitive, more competitive for residency positions because of research experience,” Huesman said.
Both Berryman and Huesman said that engagement with the community is one goal HCOM hopes to achieve with the construction of the new facility.
“We want this to be a hub of discovery that brings together the College, University, our healthcare partners and the broader community with the ultimate goal of improving the health and wellbeing of Ohioans,” Berryman wrote.
The construction is predicted to start in January 2025 and to finish at the end of 2026, Berryman wrote.
There is no specific start date for the construction of the new Heritage Translational Research Center, Alexander Semancik, a university spokesperson, said.
