The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education awarded Tuskegee University four hundred fifty thousand dollars on January 15, 2027, under the HBCU-UP Research Initiation Awards program to advance ecological research capacity and genomics education. The award funds exploration of understudied fungal, botanical, and slime mold collections to advance natural product discovery while strengthening documentation, conservation, and preservation of natural history specimens. The project integrates ecological exploration, comparative genomics, bioinformatics, and undergraduate research training to investigate evolutionary relationships and ecosystem interactions. Work is performed in Tuskegee, Alabama, with a period of performance through December 31, 2029. The Research Initiation Awards program supports junior and mid-career faculty at historically Black colleges and universities who are building new research programs or redirecting existing ones, with the expectation that the award will strengthen both the faculty member's research capability and research and teaching capacity at the home institution. Fungi and slime molds serve foundational roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through decomposition and nutrient cycling; despite their ecological importance, numerous unknown species remain underexplored, with potential applications in agriculture, ecology, and biotechnology.