University Research Funding Increases Again in 2022-2023: Faculty Impress in Office of Grants and Research Annual Report

After the global pandemic, the Seton Hall University Office of Grants and Research (OGRS) has successfully grown its funding over the past three years – an impressive campus accomplishment. OGRS supported significant faculty achievements and awards in new areas of research, the 2022-2023 OGRS Annual Report reveals.  

From physics to nursing, law, technology, communications and philosophy, the University won over $16 million in grant awards to further faculty research and development. The OGRS Annual Report highlighted success in areas of society, technology and communication, health and wellbeing, science, data science and analytics, and ethics, spirituality and science in over a dozen stories about faculty success over the year.

"This report is not just a collection of data; it is a celebration of the extraordinary dedication, innovation and achievements of our academic community," wrote John Buschman, dean of University Libraries and associate provost for Research and Innovation. "It is a testament to the people who make Seton Hall University special and the impact we have on the world." He notes that over many disciplines, faculty and researchers have worked hard to secure grants and discern meaningful data.

Seton Hall’s College of Nursing (CON) made strong funding gains in the 2022-23 cycle. Awarded a $3.6 million grant by the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) through its Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention-Mobile Health Training Program, the four-year CON project will expand access to integrated primary and behavioral health care in Newark via nurse-directed mobile health units.

"This new grant expands our educational training in Newark to include healthcare services in adult and pediatric primary care and behavioral health, in addition to our current Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Grant, which provides clinical experiences in the city’s substance and opioid use treatment centers," said Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research Kathleen Neville, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN.

The Seton Hall Law School also secured impressive funding, for a total of $3.154 million; notable was a grant for $632,000 to the Center for Social Justice, which will support a community reentry project and aid individuals in Essex County, New Jersey who need help addressing legal issues that impact their social welfare. The project, notes the Annual Report, "will produce materials, including online tools, to assist individuals in assessing their legal needs and pursuing remedies to facilitate reintegration."

Seton Hall, the Report also mentions, is continuing its tradition of developing great young minds in the research space. In March 2023, six undergraduate scholars from Seton Hall represented the University at the second annual Big East Undergraduate Research Symposium at Madison Square Garden. There, they "presented cutting-edge research in anthropology, social work, diplomacy, philosophy, organic chemistry, and the effects of adolescent binge drinking." Combining two areas of strength for Seton Hall – research and competition – then Provost Katia Passerini said the symposium "demonstrated that sports can bring us together in many other ways."

The College of Arts and Sciences saw impressive gains, winning over $2.5 million in grants, supported by, among other faculty, long-time biological researcher Sulie L. Chang, who has been advancing research at Seton Hall since 1994. To date, she has helped shepherd over $16 million in research funding to Seton Hall. In the 2022-23 cycle, The Office of the Provost awarded Sulie L. Chang three years of funding to launch the "Academy for Nature and Nurture: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Resilience."

Created to address a strong need for mental health and addiction support, the Academy will "combine research, teaching, and service to confront the nationwide mental health and addiction crisis, which in 2021 claimed more than 100,000 lives in the U.S. as a result of drug overdose deaths," details the Report. During her University tenure, Chang has authored over 160 publications, done extensive research on mammalian response to morphine via the immune system and studied opioid effect on antiretroviral treatment in people infected with HIV, and the role drugs and alcohol addiction play in COVID-19 susceptibility. 

From wind-generated energy research grants to philosophy Professor Robert Mayhew’s work translating and writing a commentary on the remains of Aristotle’s lost Zoïka, to analyzing social media’s ties to economic platforms, Seton Hall University continues to be a stand-out in growth-focused research funding. Jose Lopez’s, Ph.D., work in Plasma Physics is one example. Lopez, who is professor of physics, as well as director of the Office of Grants and Research Services, Academic Affairs Division, and the Office of the Provost at Seton Hall, is an expert in Plasma Physics.

His projects have been awarded more than $4 million from external funding sources (the U.S. Government agencies, research foundations, and private industry), and Lopez directed Plasma Physics in the Division of Physics at the National Science Foundation (NSF) before taking over as Director, OGRS at Seton Hall. "Plasma science has really become quite interdisciplinary, transcending several fields of science," said Lopez in 2022, and his work has continued to expand.  In keeping with Seton Hall’s focus on interdisciplinary learning and research, Professor Lopez’s contributions have helped enhance the NSF’s strong international reputation in the fields of research and research and development.

Wrote Dean Buschman, "As we look forward to the future, we do so with optimism and the knowledge that our community's collective efforts will lead us to even greater heights."

For questions about the OGRS Annual Report, please contact Jose L. Lopez, director of Grants and Research Services at (973) 761-9334 or via email at [email protected].

Categories: Research