As these partnerships matured and institutional alignment was established, measurable outcomes emerged that extended beyond access to infrastructure and into translational impact. Notably, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) and Morehouse School of Medicine leveraged the Frederick Research Computing Environment (FRCE) to enhance MSM’s data storage and analysis capabilities. Bowie State University engaged with the Federal Laboratory Education Accelerator (FLEX) Program to expand student and faculty participation in federal research environments. Texas Southern University contributed to the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Chemical Biology Consortium , a collaboration that engages government, academia, and industry to advance early-stage cancer drug discovery. Collectively, these efforts accelerated translational research and drug discovery by bridging academic innovation with clinical application, while elevating the national visibility of participating institutions and advancing the Executive Order’s directive to strengthen HBCU competitiveness in R&D funding. Federal laboratories have actively promoted research collaboration by sharing resources, emphasizing a broader shift in the research landscape. Through partnerships with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR)—the nation’s only Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) solely dedicated to biomedical research—HBCUs in the PEI 2.0 cohort, including Howard University, Bowie State University, Jackson State University, Morehouse School of Medicine and the University of the Virgin Islands, gained access to collaborative research opportunities and technical infrastructure. These collaborations spanned areas from bioinformatics and data science to experimental therapeutics, highlighting HBCU engagement in cutting-edge science.
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