Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Science Foundation's Office of Integrative Activities awarded $298,221 to the University of Kansas Center for Research Inc. on May 1, 2026, under the Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083) to support the EPSCOR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) Research Fellows initiative. This project grant provides fellowship support to an Assistant Professor and graduate student training at the University of Kansas in collaboration with the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida. The core deliverables include the development of data-resilient machine learning (ML) methods designed to address data quality limitations in medical artificial intelligence systems, with particular focus on addressing challenges such as data sparsity, domain shifts, and data noise in large-scale electronic health records.

The project will deliver robust algorithmic frameworks, real-world evidence generation, and retrospective clinical validation strategies applicable to medical applications including disease prognosis, survival analysis, and treatment recommendations. Additional products include enhanced clinical decision support systems that improve the trustworthiness and reliability of AI-based clinical diagnostics, enabling physicians to make more accurate and personalized treatment decisions. The award supports institutional capacity building at the University of Kansas through faculty professional advancement in artificial intelligence for healthcare, establishment of foundational research infrastructure in data-resilient learning methods, and comprehensive hands-on training for graduate students in healthcare AI. The project is scheduled for completion by April 30, 2028.