Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota award inaugural seed grant

^{Above: Robin Austin and Elizabeth Umberfield} 

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing and Mayo Clinic Department of Nursing are collaborating to award a joint seed grant to support nursing innovation and discovery.

The seed grant will support a joint research project led by a nurse scientist at Mayo and a faculty member at the School of Nursing. The grant award is $25,000 each year for two years, with a new grant awarded annually. 

“This seed grant program will foster collaboration between nurse scientists at Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota for the advancement of nursing science and, ultimately, the health of our communities,” says Diane Treat-Jacobson, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior executive associate dean for research at the University of Minnesota.

The first seed grant was awarded to Assistant Professor Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP and Nurse Scientist Elizabeth Umberfield, PhD, RN, for the pilot study Examining Coverage of Nurse-Sensitive Data in National Research Common Data Models: A Pilot Study. The project will examine two common data models for content coverage and evaluation of nurse-sensitive data representation. The long-term goal for this research is to provide a foundation for harmonizing nurse-sensitive data and to build the infrastructure for longitudinal, national-scale nursing outcomes research.

“These initial research grants will be used to seed collaborations between our two institutions to provide the building blocks for future larger extramural research grants and career training awards,” says Linda Chlan, PhD, RN, ATSF, FAAN, associate dean for nursing research at Mayo Clinic.

This collaboration builds on existing partnerships, which were codified with the creation of a collaboratory last year between the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and the Mayo Clinic Department of Nursing. The collaboratory was created to facilitate an academic-practice partnership to generate, disseminate and apply knowledge for the improvement of nursing practice, education and health outcomes.