Mission and Program Goals

National Program

The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program in the Division of Research Infrastructure at the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is a congressionally mandated program initiated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1985. The authorizing legislation for the program highlighted the findings of the annual report from the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Task Force on the health status of the American people, and noted major health disparities between minority and majority Americans.

The mission of the RCMI Program is to expand the national capability for research in the health sciences by assisting, through grant support, predominantly minority institutions that offer doctorates in the health professions and/or health-related sciences to strengthen their research environments. The primary goal of the RCMI Program is to enable these institutions to become more competitive in obtaining support for the conduct of biomedical and/or behavioral research relevant to the mission of the U. S. Public Health Service.

The NCRR currently provides support to 18 institutions through the RCMI Program. The RCMI-grantee institutions include eight schools of medicine, two colleges of pharmacy, seven graduate programs, and one Sidney McNairy, Jr. school of veterinary medicine. They are located primarily in urban centers in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, Texas, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

The RCMI Program has been guided by Dr. Sydney McNairy, Jr. since its inception in 1985. Dr. McNairy was the Director of the RCMI Program until 1994 and is now an Associate Director in the Division of Research Infrastructure. For his outstanding service and dedication to the RCMI Program, Dr. McNairy was honored with the Greenwood Award at the Eighth RCMI International Symposium on Health Disparities, held in Honolulu in December 2002.

Hawaii Program

The University of Hawaii has received continuous funding from the RCMI Program since 1986. RCMI Program grants are awarded in five year increments following a competitive grant application and review process. The first three RCMI Program grants awarded to the University of Hawaii were administered by the Pacific Biomedical Research Center (PBRC). The Program Director for these grants was the Director of PBRC, the late Dr. Frederick C. Greenwood. Under Dr. Greenwood's tenure as RCMI Program Director, considerable research capability and infrastructure were developed at the University of Hawaii. Areas of research development included neuroscience, reproductive biology, native Hawaiian health, molecular endocrinology, matrix pathobiology and retrovirology. Core facilities were created to provide support services in carpentry, scientific instrument fabrication, electronics, electron microscopy, computer and network support, and molecular biology.

In preparation for submission of the RCMI renewal application in the year 2000, Dr. Richard Yanagihara, then the Director of the Retrovirology Research Laboratory in PBRC, was chosen to be the new RCMI Program Director. This renewal, awarded in 2001, built on Dr. Greenwood's legacy by providing a new direction for the RCMI Program at the University of Hawaii. The principal goal of the project, entitled Selective Research Excellence in Biomedicine and Health, was to catalyze a renaissance of research excellence in biomedicine and health within the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). As such, most administrative, fiscal and research activities for the RCMI Program were transfered to the School of Medicine.

The 2005 competitive renewal, entitled Research Outcomes Accelerating Discoveries for Medical Applications and Practice (ROADMAP), includes research and core activities that foster collaboration between basic researchers and clinicians. The overall goal of the UHM RCMI Program during the 2006-2011 cycle is to significantly increase competitiveness for mainstream NIH funding by establishing a translational research interdisciplinary pipeline (TRIP) that leads to innovative medical applications and improved patient-care practices, particularly for diseases that disproportionately affect Asians and Pacific Islanders.

The specific aims of the current RCMI Program grant are:

To develop a comprehensive translational research interdisciplinary pipeline for biomedical imaging and bioengineering and for bioactive nutrients, with specific emphasis on developing new tools and approaches to improve diagnostic capability and to enhance treatment options, as a means of reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health. [ more... ]
To enhance and expand the human infrastructure and core support facilities for tropical infectious diseases detection and prevention and for biostatistics and computer networking, as a means of accelerating discoveries for novel medical applications. [ more... ]
To enrich the mentoring experience of young faculty supported by the RCMI Program by sustaining a monthly RCMI Forum and by convening an annual retreat for all NCRR-funded investigators, as a means of enhancing opportunities for data sharing and collaboration. [ more... ]
To establish a Clinical and Translational Sciences Bridging Fund, as a means of successfully transitioning junior faculty from career-development grant support to independent investigator-initiated research grant support. [ more... ]