A Kansas University Medical Center program designed to stimulate research in bioscience programs in Kansas has received an $18.5 million renewal grant from the National Institutes of Health.

KU Med serves as the headquarters for the Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, which serves an area network of 10 universities, including all the regents institutions in Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University.

The program was established in 2001, and is designed to improve the ability of Kansas researchers to compete for NIH funds by building a “critical mass” of junior and senior biomedical investigators, among other efforts.