# ND INBRE Health & the Environment

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA · 2020 · $134,096

## Abstract

Overall Project Summary/Abstract
North Dakota is a large land mass, low population, agricultural state with only 755,393 citizens
occupying over 68,976 square miles. Thirty-six (36) of North Dakota’s 53 counties retain a Federal
designation as “Frontier Counties” since they contain less than 6 people per square mile.
A result of this environment was that the system of higher education offered very limited opportunity
for undergraduates to participate in biomedical research. The ND INBRE addressed this problem starting
in 2005 and has now successfully established undergraduate research at primarily undergraduate
institutions (PUIs), tribal colleges (TCUs), and at the University of North Dakota, a research intensive
university (RIU) and academic home of the ND INBRE. To date, over 1,000 students have participated in
undergraduate research, including 189 American Indian students. Over 85 M.D.’s and 77 Ph.D.’s are in
training or postgraduate service, including 8 American Indian M.D.’s and 5 American Indian Ph.D.’s.
Over 120 other graduates have entered the healthcare workforce. The undergraduate researchers have
produced and presented over 775 posters. The PUIs and TCUs have year-round research on their own
campuses. The ND INBRE has also provided over $5,000,000 in infrastructure to the PUI, TCU, and RIU
partners over the last 5 years. The ND INBRE has also promoted STEM in the middle and high schools of
ND by providing registration fees for students and their schools to compete in the Science and
Engineering Fair. To date, over 3,000 middle and high school students have taken advantage of this
support. In 2018, one student was awarded a scholarship valued at $250,000. These efforts clearly
fulfill the 4 primary goals of the INBRE program; 1) to provide research opportunities for students from
PUIs, CCs and TCUs and to serve as a "pipeline" for these students to pursue health research careers; 2)
to enhance science and technology knowledge of the state's workforce; and, 3/4) to build and increase
the research base and capacity to faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at participating
institutions. The ND INBRE intends to continue to build upon this firm foundation of success.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10197704
- **Project number:** 3P20GM103442-19A1S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Donald A. Sens
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $134,096
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2001-09-24 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10197704

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10197704, ND INBRE Health & the Environment (3P20GM103442-19A1S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10197704. Licensed CC0.

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