August 10, 1999
BIRMINGHAM, AL — UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Department of Nutrition Sciences will receive $4 million over the next five years to establish a Clinical Nutrition Research Unit (CNRU). The funding for the CNRU comes from the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). UAB will have one of eight such federally funded research centers in the country.
"The creation of this research center will allow us to develop physical and personnel resources campus-wide for nutrition and obesity research," says Dr. Roland Weinsier, professor and chairman of the department of Nutrition Sciences. "The CNRU will serve as an incubator for new ideas in nutrition research."
Among other goals, the CNRU will provide a vehicle to launch small scale feasibility studies to help determine if new ideas in the nutrition and obesity field are viable and worth pursuing. The research center will also fund a ‘Named New Investigator’ every few years, to further stimulate new ideas and hold nutrition and obesity conferences at UAB.
In 1996, UAB began a pilot center in obesity and nutrition research that was funded by the University. In 1998, it was the first pilot center to be upgraded to the status of a full university-wide research center.
"Federal funding and national recognition are a direct result of the success of our own in-house efforts," said Weinsier. "Our selection by the NIDDK to be a federally supported research center is indicative of the strong University support for nutrition and obesity research at UAB."
Weinsier also said that recent accomplishments by the Nutrition Sciences Department, including a number two ranking on National Institutes of Health funding and a $500,000 award from Bristol-Myers Squibb as an International Center of Nutrition Research Excellence, had an positive bearing on winning the NIDDK grant.
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