CGHSR Awards Global Health Seed Grants to Three UMN Faculty Members

The Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility (CGHSR) has awarded three University of Minnesota faculty members Global Health Seed Grants. This year’s funding will advance global health research projects in Africa and South America. 

The 2024 awardees are: 

• Noelle Noyes, DVM, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, UMN College of Veterinary Medicine
• Caleb Skipper, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine, UMN Medical School 
• Byron Vaughn MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, UMN Medical School 

Global Health Seed Grants provide funding of $25,000, and are awarded to UMN faculty every year. The primary goal of this funding is to support global health research studies that prioritize international partnership and long-term, sustainable collaboration. CGHSR has funded 48 Global Health Seed Grant awards since the program began in 2016.  Applications open in the spring. 

2024 Global Health Seed Grant Recipients 

Harnessing Bacterial Genomics to Monitor Heavy Metal Pollution in the Andean Mountain Grasslands of Peru

• PI: Noelle Noyes, DVM, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, UMN College of Veterinary Medicine
• Co-Is: Juan J Siuce Moreno, PhD, Assistant Professor, Veterinary School, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru; Tito L Sanchez Rojas, PhD, Associate Professor, Microbiology Department, College of Biological Science, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru

A Novel Diagnostic Approach to Opportunistic Infections in Persons with Advanced HIV Disease in Ethiopia

• PI: Caleb Skipper, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine, UMN Medical School 
• Co-PI: Tafese Beyene Tufa, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Microbiology, Asella Teaching and Referral Hospital, College of Health Sciences, Arsi University; Hirsch Institute of Tropical Medicine, Asella, Ethiopia

Hepatitis C Virus Co-infection in Ugandans with Complicated Hepatitis B Virus Infection

• PI: Byron Vaughn MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, UMN Medical School 
• Co-PI: Ponsiano Ocama, MBChB, MMED, PhD, FCP (ECSA), Associate Professor of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University 

Thanks to everyone who submitted an award application this year. We’d also like to thank our program managers and application reviewers. We hope interested parties will consider preparing a proposal for our next round of funding, which will be announced in early 2025.

Learn more about our Global Health Seed Grants including eligibility and how to apply