The Hampton University (HU) Biomedical Research Center (BRC) will be a genuine national resource: a state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary, research facility situated on campus at an Historically Black University. The BRC will become a flagship for integrated research and training on a small university campus. Unfortunately, HU does not currently have any dedicated modern research buildings. There also exists a critical national need for diversity in the educational pipeline and a need for growth in quality graduate programs. The BRC will develop minority scientists and create skilled professional and a diverse workforce. HU is uniquely poised to capitalize on this challenge. This proposed facility will create sufficient research space capacity, critically needed to attract competitive investigators, while supporting the expert training of young scientists. The BRC will consolidate and greatly improve productivity of research activities currently dispersed across campus and located off campus at hospital facilities, federal laboratories, and other institutions in our market. The clustering of these research activities into a single research facility will support interconnected scientific growth in an interdisciplinary environment for faculty, staff and students. This will also leverage the existing research strengths supporting related research areas, which can be explored within the foundation of an existing solid scientific base. Compelling scientific questions will be assailed from multiple fronts, in the BRC. This will create a dynamic environment where researchers will be encouraged to look both at and beyond their focused areas to incorporate into their studies strategic information from other sciences as well.
