Morgantown enterprise Apis Artistic wins $260K NIH grant

Submitted to The Dominion Publish

Apis Artistic, a small, woman-owned artistic providers company in Morgantown, was not too long ago awarded a $259,610 Part I Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis (SBIR) grant by the Nationwide Institute of Common Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH).

The funding can be used to develop a digital platform for coaching analysis universities and communities to ascertain and function youth-development applications in well being sciences and medical professions based mostly on West Virginia’s extremely profitable Well being Sciences and Expertise Academy (HSTA).

Bethany Hornbeck, Apis Artistic’s president and CEO, stated, “Shortages in well being professions throughout the board demand our instant consideration, and this grant will assist create HSTA-modeled applications that can practice and put together our subsequent era of physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and others. We’ve been engaged on this workforce range initiative for nearly 9 years and, with NIGMS help, our staff is ready to satisfy and exceed our venture targets.”

Hornbeck, a WVU graduate, stated the NIGMS SBIR Part II grants that lie forward might supply extra funding and alternative for this initiative.

In 2020, Apis Artistic entered right into a commercialization settlement with WVU to make HSTA-based applications obtainable to younger folks throughout the nation. By way of its HSTA Hatch initiative, Apis has assisted The College of Alabama (UA) in founding NIGMS Science Training Partnership Award-funded HSTA-Alabama (HSTA-AL), the primary full replication of the HSTA program within the nation. Apis has additionally offered providers to the College of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Pathways Academy to guage outcomes of its RAMP-UP program for highschool college students.

“The Apis Artistic staff jump-started the HSTA-AL initiative by offering on-line and in-person sources from an almost 30-year-old profitable youth improvement program,” stated Dr. Robin Bartlett, HSTA-AL director, and Affiliate Dean of Analysis for the UA Capstone School of Nursing. “It will take us a few years to convey this kind of program to fruition, however now we have completed it in lower than three. By way of our continued partnership with Apis’s HSTA Hatch staff, we can make a significant distinction in recruiting, retaining and graduating various nursing and different biomedical professionals within the very close to future.”

Now Apis has gained federal SBIR funding from NIH/NIGMS to additional increase its attain. Led by Hornbeck and her staff, the HSTA Joint Governing Board, WVU, and different companions will develop an internet coaching and analysis platform universities and communities can use to discovered extra new HSTA applications outdoors the Mountain State. The platform will cut back capital prices and create a hub for HSTA organizations throughout the nation to share their data and expertise and strengthen their applications over time.

It’s anticipated that the coaching and evaluation merchandise ensuing from this effort will considerably cut back the time required to ascertain and refine native applications that notice successes in recruiting and retaining biomedical researchers, healthcare suppliers, and different STEM professionals akin to these achieved by WV HSTA.