Florida International University is strongly committed to providing minority students and faculty with research opportunities that will enhance their potential to achieve nationally competitive research careers in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. It has established the Office for Access to Biomedical Research and Training (ABR) to achieve the following goals: to develop institutional infrastructure for the enhancement of biomedical research: to promote, encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary and collaborative research between faculty within and outside the institution: and to enhance faculty research capability and competitiveness in basic and applied biomedical and behavioral science. With these goals the institution expects to build an increasing core of productive research investigators who will be nationally competitive in the mainstream biomedical science research arena. Consequently, the institution hopes to see a significant increase in (a) the total number of applications submitted to federal agencies supporting health-related and biomedical research, (b) the number of NIH-funded applications, (c) the number of investigator-initiated RO1 grants, and (d) the number of peer-reviewed publications per faculty member yearly. Activities of the ABR Office include the Faculty Research Enhancement Award (FREA) Initiative which supports faculty research through funding pilot projects. To further enhance faculty research participation, the ABR Office organizes annual symposia and workshops. The institution's research infrastructure has been significantly improved by the construction of two Health and Life Sciences buildings that house research laboratories and core research facilities, such as the DNA sequencing laboratory. Future plans include continued support of the ABR Office at the operational level currently in place. Since 2001 FIU has demonstrated a strong commitment to developing medical education and biomedical research programs by (a) new faculty hires, (b) new programs, (c) new facilities, (d) research program growth (e) proposed medical school.
