California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) brought in a record total of more than $16.9 million in grants for research and creative projects for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, up from $15.8 million during 2019-2020. The university’s grant totals continued their recent upward trajectory, even during a year that saw more than its fair share of hurdles and distractions.
The record grant totals for 2020-21 included many large awards that have already been announced, including:
- $1.86 million State of California grant for the Mervyn M. Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute’s “Cannabis Industry in the South Bay” project, led by the institute’s director, Anthony Samad.
- $1.46 million as part of a $7.6 million multi-year U.S. Department of Education grant for the College of Education and the Center of Innovation in STEM Education’s (CISE) “APPLE (Accelerated Preparation Program for Leaders in Education)” program led by Annenberg Endowed Professor for Innovation in STEM Education Kamal Hamdan.
- $1.29 million National Science Federation grant for Dean of Undergraduate Studies Kim Costino’s “Leveraging a Faculty Community of Practice Model of Professional Learning to Enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM Teaching, Learning, and Leadership” project.
- $228,000 National Science Foundation grant for psychology professor Philip Vieira’s “Investigating the Combination of Design Thinking and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences to Promote Student Persistence and Retention in STEM” project.
- $486,000 U.S. Department of Education TRIO grants for the Student Support Services program to provide low-income and military veteran students with academic support and resources. The multi-year grants will provide $2.4 million toward the SSS programs over the next five years.
A wider range of grants helped push CSUDH to a record year. The university received a number of grants for cultural programming and preservation, including $800,000 from Los Angeles County to the University Library for the Mayme A. Clayton Collection of African American History and Culture in the Gerth Archives and a presentation by mixed-media artist Toni Scott, and a $100,000 Getty Foundation grant for CSUDH University Art Gallery’s “Brackish Waters Los Angeles” project led by gallery director Aandrea Stang.
Research grants continue to come in for CSUDH faculty. In addition to renewals of multi-year grants, examples of new grants include: a $598,000 grant from the U.S. Army awarded to physics assistant professor Horace Crogman to help with the acquisition of new cutting-edge instrumentation for biophysics research; and a $234,000 National Science Foundation grant to biology associate professor Sonal Singhal for a multi-institution research project to determine species boundaries in 30 North American lizard species to better understand biodiversity.
“Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the number of proposals submitted by CSUDH faculty, as well as the dollars awarded, both increased this year compared to 2019-20,” said Sheree Schrager, dean of graduate studies and research. “This is a testament to the resiliency of our faculty, and a remarkable indicator of the effort they put toward their scholarship during an incredibly difficult time.”
