Albany State University (ASU) is proposing to improve its biotechnology infrastructure to enhance its research capabilities. In the proposed RIMI program, we intend to include three capacity building components that deal with the research infrastructure, faculty development and collaborative research. Although ASU has built a good research infrastructure it lacks well structured research facilities in biomedical sciences. We seek to develop research facilities to include a core biotechnology lab, tissue culture facility, common reagent room, and a bio-imaging facility. We have incorporated a strong faculty development component after well-planned and thoughtful discussions with our faculty. This includes release time support, on-campus/off-campus research support, a biomedical seminar series, technology training workshops, and scientific meeting support. The collaborative component was added to broaden our existing collaborative efforts with Georgia Institute of Technology, Tennessee University and Purdue University. A central research support service is proposed in the RIMI program which will be an administrative unit coordinating the efforts of the RIMI program and managing program's central resources and activities. ? ? The RIMI program will play a major role in providing resources and infrastructure at ASU to improve faculty productivity in terms of proposal writing, scientific presentations and publications in referenced journals. With the collaborative research projects, the research environment at ASU will be enhanced which will result in increased minority student participation in biotechnology research and an increased minority pool of biomedical researchers.
