Princeton University, Five HBCUs Announce First Research Team Collaborations

Princeton University has announced the first research collaborations between Princeton faculty and their peers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Ten projects at five HBCUs have been selected to receive support through the Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research and Innovation (PACRI), an initiative first announced in May 2022.

Princeton worked with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to identify the HBCU partners for the first year of the project.

“UNCF is excited to support this groundbreaking initiative connecting Princeton University faculty and research faculty at HBCUs,” said Chad Womack, UNCF’s senior director of National STEM Programs and Initiatives, at the initial announcement of the project last May.

Womack added, “PACRI will provide much-needed funding to help establish sustainable research collaborations between Princeton and HBCU faculty across a variety of HBCU campuses. We’re proud to partner with the PACRI team at Princeton to support engagement with leadership and faculty and to assist in the selection of HBCU campuses and then proposals via the RFP process.”

Each research collaboration will be co-led by a team of investigators from Princeton and these five HBCU partnering institutions:

• Howard University
• Jackson State University
• Prairie View A&M University
• Spelman College
• University of Maryland Eastern Shore

The multidisciplinary projects cover a broad range of topics in the natural sciences, computer science, social sciences, creative arts and humanities and engineering.

“We started the Princeton Alliance to generate trailblazing ideas from collaborators who otherwise might not have the opportunity to work together — and researchers from across Princeton and our HBCU partners responded,” said Tod Hamilton, professor of sociology and a faculty co-founder of the PACRI program.

Rodney Priestley, another faculty co-founder of PACRI and now dean of the Princeton Graduate School, believes the collaborations will yield additional benefits for the institutions and students down the road. “An integral part of these projects is opportunities for student and faculty exchanges, which we see leading to innovative ideas with the possibility for shared intellectual property and even spinout companies. There could be many benefits for grad students just beginning their careers.”

The following 10 projects, each of which receive up to a maximum of $250,000 for two years from Princeton, began in September.

Howard University

• Improving the Health of Urban Minority Asthmatic Children Living in Public Housing
• Computational Modeling and Optimization of Microchannel Heat Sinks

Jackson State University

• Dielectric Performance of Polymer Nanocomposite Heterostructures for High Energy Storage Capacitors
• The Shifting Safety Net: The Role of Disability Insurance Programs in Household Budgets, Dynamics, and the Broader Community

Prairie View A&M University

• Deepfakes Detection: Solutions for a Growing Cybersecurity Concern
• Exploring Applications of Machine Learning for DNA Methylation Experiments with the Goal of Trait Discoveries

Spelman College

• The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House: A Spelman.edu Multimedia Performance
• The Heirloom Gardens Project

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

• A Framework to Better Understand Coastal Flooding in the Mid-Atlantic Region: How Groundwater May Play an Unseen Role in Climate Impacts to Estuarian Systems
• Dissecting Erysiphe Necator Infection Mechanisms and Vitis Host Responses to Improve Grapevine Powdery Mildew Resistance

The PACRI project is one of several Princeton initiatives aimed at building more inclusive research, innovation and entrepreneurship at Princeton and beyond. The first phase of the Alliance focuses on HBCUs, but Princeton has indicated that it anticipates expanding the effort to future collaborations with other Minority-Serving Institutions and women’s colleges.

The collaborations are a good step by Princeton, one that may prompt other leading research universities to follow suit.