Propel Center Announces Recipients of $1,000,000 Industry Impact Grants

Five HBCUs awarded $200k Health Innovation & Research Grants for visionary projects focusing on health-related research 

ATLANTA, Aug. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Propel Center — the global HBCU technology and learning hub — today announced the awardees of $1 million in Health Innovation & Research Grants. These awards, the second round of Industry Impact Grants, continue Propel's mission to offer world-class research and innovation opportunities for HBCUs and their students.

The five grant awardees will each receive $200K in funding, and will also have the opportunity to work in collaboration with Propel Impact Industry Mentors, who are available to help develop curricula and provide ongoing mentorship, learning support, and internship opportunities.

Supported by Apple, the one-year awards will fund HBCU student and faculty projects that help ensure HBCUs have access to vital virtual and in-person learning experiences in health-related research. Intended to provide new opportunities for the current and future workforce, the Health Innovation & Research Grants support work in STEM fields, data science, and machine learning-artificial intelligence. 

Each of the five awardees presented innovative proposals that leverage digital technologies in an effort to improve health and wellness, and build a diverse pipeline of talent in health technology, medical programs, undergraduate study, and allied health professional programs.

The five grant awardees are: Virginia State University, Harris-Stowe State University, the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, Morehouse School of Medicine and Cheyney University.

"HBCUs are hubs for innovation and entrepreneurship, with the talent and creativity to solve global challenges," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. "We are proud to support this opportunity for HBCU students and faculty to create transformative health technologies for their communities, and to help elevate the next generation of healthcare leaders."

"We're exceedingly proud and humbled to be named one of the awardee for these important and prestigious Propel grants," said Dr. Makola M. Abdullah, president of Virginia State University. "At VSU, like many other HBCUs, we believe in and are passionate about our scholars, their future impacts and the work that they turn out. We stand on a longstanding legacy of producing leaders, and the awarding of this Health Innovation & Research Grant is testimony to their level of dedication."

"One of our goals at Propel is to shine a long overdue spotlight on the young scholars at our HBCUs who are prepared, trained and poised to step up and transform the global, diverse healthcare workforce of the future," states Dr. Charles J. Gibbs, president of the Propel Center | HBCU Consortium. "These Impact Grant awardees are our best hope and opportunity to add to and enhance the Black talent pipeline, and we're proud to support our future healthcare leaders and innovators."

About Ed Farm
Ed Farm was launched in February 2020 in Birmingham, Alabama to create programs designed to engage students, educators and adult learners in innovative digital skills experiences that better prepare them for the 21st-century workforce. Moving forward, Ed Farm is expanding its programming and its footprint across the country, building on the existing programming and work taking place in Birmingham.

About Propel Center
Supported by founding partners Apple and Southern Company, the Propel Center is a first-of-its-kind innovation and learning hub for the entire HBCU community that will serve as a catalytic epicenter of learning, providing students with the knowledge, skills, tools and resources necessary to transform the nation's talent pipeline and workforce. Through a robust virtual platform, on-campus activities at partner institutions and a physical campus located in the Atlanta University Center, Propel will bring innovative curricula and unprecedented leadership opportunities to produce the next generation of Black leaders.

SOURCE PropelCenter.org