Pitt Momentum Funds: A Game Changer
In 2019, Pitt restructured its internal grant funding to motivate the development of large-scale innovative, interdisciplinary projects for maximum impact in research, scholarship and creative endeavors. Momentum Funds help researchers to engage—at the early stages of collaborative projects; then, when building capacity; and at the scalable level.
“This is why we’re here as a university … negotiating the present, creating a just and vibrant future and scaling up to achieve a worldwide positive impact. Making a concept bigger might mean making it different.”
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher
In 2022, 32 research projects received Momentum Funds awards. Among them are the following:
> Michelle Reid-Vazquez, associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies, is working with collaborators in Africana Studies, the University Library System, the School of Education and the School of Public Health on the project Race, Migration, Education, and Healthcare to address historical and contemporary struggles of Black and Brown communities and to enhance the visibility and knowledge of Western Pennsylvania’s ethnic communities of color—African American, African diasporic, Asian American and Latinx. Researchers are gathering, analyzing and sharing data to create digital resources. The study aims to offer potential interventions in the present and future that are informed by these communities’ intersecting geographies and linked social experiences in the region.
> School of Computing and Information faculty led a project with colleagues in the Departments of History and Philosophy of Science, Psychology and Anthropology to explore concerns over fairness, accountability and transparency in applying artificial intelligence (AI) applications, asking how cultures perceive AI principles and acceptable ground rules for global AI governance.
> Researchers in the Department of Industrial Engineering, University Center for International Studies, School of Social Work, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and School of Education are adapting marketable, high-demand skills in targeted areas to meet workforce needs at sites in Titusville, Pennsylvania; Lagos, Nigeria; and Tuver, India.
> Faculty from the School of Dental Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Bioengineering and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences are creating a 73-member consortium on bone and mineral research on musculoskeletal disorders, bone injuries, osteoporosis, cancer and regenerative medicine.
