Funding Programs

PI: Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, Professor, Sociology; Director, International Institute; Director, Latin American Studies 

Co-PI: Elana Zilberg, Associate Professor, Communications 

Summary: The International Institute will nurture existing collaborations and foster new ones that ground our understanding of diverse, border-crossing cultures, languages, and perspectives and how these things impact how we think and act. The initial faculty groups, ‘borderlands’,‘South Asia,’ and ‘the Arab World,’ contain distinct UC San Diego research strength. Our objective initially within each working group and then beyond is to bring together scholars from across Schools to identify common research and teaching themes as well as key languages that can lead to successful, large-scale, globally oriented research collaborations. 

PI: Rebecca Fielding-Miller, Associate Professor, Public Health  

Co-PI : Abigail Andrews, Professor, Urban Studies and Planning; Director of Center for Comparative Immigration Studies  

Summary: The project will develop best practices for community engaged partnerships and establish a cross-campus database of community-engaged research (CEnR) faculty at UCSD. Through four convenings over 12 months, multidisciplinary faculty and community stakeholders will collaboratively map processes and practices that support respectful, impactful research engagements. These convenings will build a shared understanding of best practices, streamline partnership opportunities, and support community members in engaging UCSD expertise. Anticipated outcomes include a white paper on recommended practices, a multilingual summary for community distribution, and an accessible online resource hub. This initiative will leverage UCSD’s infrastructure and existing partnerships, advancing UCSD’s regional, national, and global leadership in equitable, respectful community-centered research. 

PI: Melody Schiaffino, Associate Professor in Residence, Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences  

Co-PI: Michael Hogarth, Professor, Medicine 

Summary: Southern California, specifically San Diego and Imperial counties are home to the largest land-border crossings in the U.S. and top 5 in the world. In California, we can track and understand cancer risk factors across U.S. populations but are constrained by the lack of data across the border, while cancer risk, disease, and mortality do not experience this constraint. Contrary to care delivery and individual clinics, to our knowledge little has been done to understand research and policy perspectives, challenges, and opportunities along the U.S./Mexico border. For example, tissue samples cannot be transferred across the border, but laboratory capacity and policies on both sides are currently unknown. Just as COVID19 infections did not cease when the border closed, so should our efforts to conduct research beyond borders. Through joint efforts with UCSD, UABC-Mexicali, SDSU, and SDSU IV we aim to gather diverse stakeholders focused on cancer research to share best practices, define common terms, and co-develop a shared vision for binational training and translational research. 

Lilly Irani (PI), Associate Professor, Communication   

Satomi Rash-Zeigler (Co-PI), Executive Director, UC San Diego Labor Center   

Cinnamon Bloss (PI), Professor, Public Health, Psychiatry and Medicine; Director, Center for Empathy and Technology   

Melissa Karnaze (Co-PI), Project Scientist, Public Health   

Amy Lerner (PI), Associate Teaching Professor, Urban Studies and Planning   

Mike Ferry (Co-PI), Director of Energy Storage and Systems, Center for Energy Research