Research Online

The 2011 North Dakota INBRE Annual Symposium for Undergraduate Research will be held Thursday, October 27, at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.  The focus of the symposium is "Environmental Research in North Dakota."  Health and the environment are the focuses of research conducted under the North Dakota IDeA Networks for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program, which lends significant financial support to research projects at predominantly undergraduate institutions in the state. Information about the INBRE program can be found at http://ndinbre.org  

The Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) program under the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Research Resources assists states such as North Dakota that have historically received relatively little research funding from the NIH. The objective is to develop an infrastructure that supports biomedical research, creates opportunities for students to pursue careers in biomedical research and assists researchers in becoming more competitive for NIH funding.

The symposium will feature research presentations by faculty and a poster session highlighting research by undergraduates from participating institutions: Dickinson State, Minot State, Mayville State, Valley City State, Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Turtle Mountain Community College, the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University.

The North Dakota INBRE has received $15.9 million from the NIH to increase research opportunities, investigators and resources in biomedical research. INBRE emphasizes capacity building at undergraduate institutions within the state. The goal is to improve North Dakota's research competitiveness by increasing the number of students who continue their education at a research university—such as UND or NDSU—where they can receive advanced training in biomedical research fields. To do this, INBRE funds research projects at the four-year schools and supports their faculty through mentors and facilities at UND and NDSU.

The statewide INBRE network is administered by the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences in collaboration with North Dakota State University. Donald Sens, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences runs the program at UND, and Donald Schwert, Ph.D., a distinguished professor of geology and director of the Center for Science and Mathematics at North Dakota State University, serves as the program coordinator there.

“INBRE provides a broad range of benefits in biomedical research and science education encompassing research universities, baccalaureate institutions and tribal colleges across North Dakota,” said Sens. “Our INBRE has actually got to the point now that we have full-blown research programs at both Cankdeska Cikana and Turtle Mountain.”

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Contact: Denis MacLeod, assistant director, Office of Alumni and Community Relations, UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, (701) 777-2733, denis.macleod@med.und.edu