Approximately 100 people gathered Tuesday at the Durham Research Center commons area to celebrate UNMC’s milestone $115.1 million total in research funding for the 2015-16 year.
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., joined Vice Chancellor for Research Jennifer Larsen, M.D., to thank the researchers, trainees, technicians, coordinators, and other research staff who contributed to the accomplishment.
“I congratulate you,” Dr. Gold told the gathered spectators. “I know that this is nothing but very hard work. It’s brilliance, but it’s also teamwork. It’s cooperation and collaboration. It’s having an infrastructure, having a beautiful set of facilities to work in — and when we open the new facility across the street, we’ll have even more space.
“But it’s a dedication and it’s a commitment to an amazingly high calling. And it is for that dedication and commitment that I share my most sincere congratulations,” he said.
Addressing the group, Dr. Larsen spoke about the principal investigators, technicians, financial administrators, core facility staff, UNeMed representatives and others who had all contributed to the achievement.
“It says how much research has changed and how complex research is,” she said. “We are truly a village — we need to work together. The more you have opportunities to interact and collaborate, you can create new opportunities for science and for solving complex problems, as well as move the science from the bench to the bedside and into solutions useful in our communities.
“It’s important to recognize that you can’t do these things by yourself, that all these different kinds of people are important . . . to not only get research out the door but ultimately translated into communities.
“This is an amazing moment in our university’s lifetime,” she said.