MTSU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

MTSU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Reporting to the Vice Provost for Research, the Office of Research and Sponsored deals with all matte

All new awards going forward will be announced on our new Funded Projects webpage.
09/17/2025

All new awards going forward will be announced on our new Funded Projects webpage.

09/15/2025

Grant Award announced the second week of September 2025:

• Jennifer Stewart (PI, Dyslexia Services, College of Education) was awarded $32,000.00 from The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Inc. for the period 7/1/2025-12/15/2028.

The primary purpose of this research is to assess the efficacy of the AIM Pathways to Proficient Reading course in improving educator knowledge of literacy and instructional practices. A comprehensive database will be developed from existing data sources for the AIM Institute for Learning & Research that documents the development and impact of the professional development course. Ultimately, this database will be utilized to investigate the impact of the training on educator content knowledge and any perceived
change to classroom pedagogical practice to student reading outcomes in participating states and districts.

• Hanna Terletska (PI, Physics and Astronomy, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded $286,822.00 from the National Science Foundation for the period 7/1/2025-10/31/2027.

MTSU will be involved in two projects within this collaborative effort between several universities. The first project aims to develop interpretable descriptors to effectively capture the structural and functional properties of perovskites, such as atomic arrangements, environmental stability, and electronic or optical behaviors. An AI-powered chatbot will be developed utilizing natural language processing techniques to assist researchers. The second project proposes to develop an active learning-driven machine learning workflow to tackle the structural and compositional variability of HOIS (Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Structures) for their properties prediction. This project will advance the understanding of structure-property relationships and accelerate the discovery of HOIS optimized for energy, electronics, and sensor applications.

09/08/2025

Grant Award announced the first week of September 2025:

• Cynthia Chafin (PI, Director, Center for Health and Human Services) was awarded funding of $64,600.00 from the Williamson County Government for the period 7/7/2025-7/6/2026.

In a continuation of an agreement with the Williamson County Opioid Task Force, MTSU will provide application and rubric assistance, proposal scoring and recommendations, and grantee data tracking and evaluation services to aid in the implementation of the County’s opioid abatement and remediation Community Grant Program.

09/02/2025

Grant Awards announced the fourth week of August 2025:

• Emily Baran (PI, History, College of Liberal Arts) and Ashley Riley Sousa (Co-PI, History, College of Liberal Arts) were awarded funding of $40,859.00 from Rutherford County for the period 7/1/2025-6/30/2026.

In a cooperative program in existence since 1997, the Rutherford County Government has contracted with MTSU to provide two graduate assistants with 9-month internships to help staff the Rutherford County Archives.

• Hongbo Zhang (PI, Engineering Technology, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded funding of $200,000.00 from the National Science Foundation for the period 10/1/2025-9/30/2027.

This research proposes a novel object recognition method for machine learning applications, which currently utilize shape and color-based recognition. The new laser object recognition method relies on the object materials and surface structure conditions, projecting laser dots on the object and performing object recognition through the detection of light reflection and scattering patterns.

08/25/2025

Grant Awards announced the third week of August 2025:

• Deborah Lee (PI, NHC Chair of Excellence in Nursing, College of Behavioral & Health Sciences) and Lisa (Kay) Murphree (Co-PI, Nursing, College of Behavioral & Health Sciences) were awarded additional funding of $53,633.87 from the US Department of Health & Human Services/HRSA (through Vanderbilt University) for the period 7/1/2024-6/30/2029.

The primary goal of the Middle Tennessee Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP), currently in Year 2, is to educate and train the primary care and geriatrics workforces and other appropriate specialties to provide age-friendly and dementia-friendly care of older adults. This geriatric education and training includes team training conferences, an RN apprenticeship program, and a CNA apprenticeship program. The GWEP encourages the development of reciprocal partnerships between academia, primary care sites, and community organizations.

• Susan Martin (PI, Library Collection Development & Management, Walker Library) was awarded funding of $3,579.78 from the American Library Association for the period 6/1/2025-8/31/2026.

The Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection, a Special Collection within the James E. Walker Library at MTSU, preserves the cultural, social, and economic heritage of the Tennessee whiskey, wine, and beer industries. It contains more than 1500 monographs, journals, government documents, and an extensive collection of cultural artifacts, such as advertising collateral, bottle and can labels, postcards, revenue stamps, earthenware whiskey jugs, and bottles. Project funding will provide an experiential learning opportunity for a graduate student intern to acquire real-world skills within the library and archives field through working with this collection.

• Cynthia Chafin (PI, Director, Center for Health & Human Services) was awarded funding of $109,400.00 from Rutherford County for the period 7/1/2025-6/30/2026.

The Office of Prevention Science and Recovery, housed within the Center for Health and Human Services at MTSU, will assist Rutherford County in reviewing and approving applications for County funds related to opioid litigation settlements for opioid and substance abuse abatement measures. The Office will create an application process for external organizations to request funding from the County, including the development of a scoring rubric and reporting metrics. It will also serve as a resource to other TN counties through collaboration and sharing of best practices.

08/13/2025

Grant Awards announced the second week of August 2025:

• Cynthia Chafin (PI, Director – Center for Health & Human Services) was awarded funding of $45,000.00 from the US Department of Health & Human Services (through the Tennessee Department of Health) for the period 8/1/2025-7/31/2026 (Year 4 of grant).

The Safe Stars Evaluation Program, an injury prevention initiative from the TN Department of Health, is in its 4th year at CHHS. Project participants provide outreach to non-member schools and community leagues involved in extramural and intramural sports with the goal of a Safe Stars designation for the organization. A recruitment plan and evaluation tools are among the results of this grant effort.

• Ngee (Sing) Chong (PI, Chemistry, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded funding of $37,046.00 from the US Department of Energy (through Meharry Medical College) for the period 4/7/2025-4/6/2026.

In this collaboration between Dr. Chong and Dr. Aramandia Ramesh (PI at Meharry Medical College), studies will be conducted on thermal degradation of PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances), called “forever chemicals”. The effort will significantly contribute to advancing our understanding of PFAS breakdown processes and their applications in treatment-related challenges.

• Susan Myers-Shirk (PI, True Blue Core, Academic Affairs) and Christina Cobb (Co-PI, True Blue Core, Academic Affairs) were awarded funding of $75,000.00 from the Teagle Foundation for the period 7/1/2025-6/30/2026.

This planning grant will be used to develop a 12-credit Cornerstone Humanities pathway or track through the general education curriculum of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) community colleges and the public baccalaureate institutions of Tennessee. The track will begin with a gateway course built around transformative texts.

08/04/2025

Grant Awards announced the first week of August 2025:

• Lei Miao (PI, Engineering Technology, College of Basic & Applied Sciences), Hongbo Zhang (Co-PI, Engineering Technology, College of Basic & Applied Sciences), and Yi Gu (Co-PI, Computer Science, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) were awarded funding of $50,000.00 from the US Department of Transportation (through the Tennessee Department of Transportation) for the period 4/24/2025-12/23/2025.

• Katie Schrodt (PI, Elementary & Special Education, College of Education) and Madeline Berkowitz (Co-PI, Psychology, College of Behavioral & Health Sciences) were awarded $87,000.00 from 95 Percent Group, Inc. for the period 6/23/2025-7/31/2026.

• April Weissmiller (PI, Biology, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded funding of $131,300.00 from the US Department of Health & Human Services/National Institutes of Health for the period 7/15/2025-5/31/2027.

• April Weissmiller (PI, Biology, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded funding of $549,836.00 from the US Department of Health & Human Services/National Institutes of Health for the period 7/7/2025-6/30/2028.

07/29/2025

Grant Awards announced the fourth week of July 2025:

• Edwin Kaup (PI, University Police Chief) was awarded funding of $60,000.00 from the US Department of Justice (through the Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs) for the period 7/1/2025-6/30/2026 (Year 3 of grant).

• Lu Xiong (PI, Mathematical Sciences, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded $17,980.00 from the Casualty Actuarial Society for the period 5/30/2025-5/29/2030.

07/21/2025

Grant Awards announced the third week of July 2025:

• Cynthia Chafin (PI, Center for Health & Human Services, Academic Affairs) was awarded $5,354,501.00 from the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council (Community Grant – Hustle Recovery Respite Housing) for the period 7/1/2024-6/30/2027.

• Cynthia Chafin (PI, Center for Health & Human Services, Academic Affairs) was awarded $3,309,047.00 from the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council (Community Grant – Hustle Recovery Capacity Building) for the period 7/1/2024-6/30/2027.

07/14/2025

Grant Awards announced the second week of July 2025:

• Cynthia Chafin (PI, Center for Health & Human Services, Academic Affairs) was awarded $168,340.00 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services for the period 7/1/2025-6/30/2026.

07/01/2025

Grant Awards announced the fourth week of June 2025:

• Hongbo Zhang (PI, Engineering Technology, College of Basic & Applied Sciences) was awarded $29,973.00 from the US Department of Agriculture (through the University of Georgia) for the period 4/1/2025-3/31/2027.

• Connie Casha (PI, Director, Early Learning Programs, College of Education) was awarded $1,716,000.00 from the US Department of Education (through the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) for the period 7/1/2025-6/30/2026.

06/23/2025

Grant Awards announced the third week of June 2025:

Ben Stickle (PI, Criminal Justice Administration, College of Behavioral & Health Sciences) was awarded $200,000.00 from the US Department of Justice (through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) for the period 5/15/2025-9/30/2027.

Address

2269 Middle Tennessee Boulevard
Murfreesboro, TN
37132

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8am - 4:30pm
Friday 8am - 4:30pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when MTSU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The University

Send a message to MTSU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs:

Shortcuts

Share

Category