Faculty members from Arkansas Tech University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff have collaborated to develop the Bolstering University Infrastructure for Leading Development in Research initiative.

The initiative aims to leverage roles for ATU and UAPB in rural economic development.

Each institution will receive a $400,000 award from the National Science Foundation.

“Through the project, the universities will align faculty research with regional partnership opportunities, expanding existing partnerships that currently depend on individual faculty into more sustainable collaborations, building partnerships that better meet employer needs and fully leverage university capabilities and addressing the regional brain drain due to underemployed or relocation of STEM talent,” said

Georgeanna Wright, University Honors director and assistant professor of health informatics at ATU, in a news release.