The University of Kansas-based Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center has been awarded a five-year $5.4 million grant, KU announced this week.

The money comes from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

It will fund “administrative, statistical, participant recruitment, measurement methodology and various preclinical services” for 43 scientists studying intellectual disabilities at KU’s Lawrence and Medical Center campuses and the Children’s Campus of Kansas City, according to KU. It also will support a specific project researching the effectiveness of an intervention to improve speaking by school-age children with autism spectrum disorder.

The bicampus KIDDRC is directed by John Colombo, director of the Life Span Institute and professor of psychology at KU’s Lawrence campus, and co-directed by Peter Smith, senior associate dean for research and professor of molecular and integrative physiology at KU Medical Center.