3rd cohort of UKinSPIRE fellows to pursue high-impact international research
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 25, 2025) — The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the University of Kentucky International Center (UKIC) have announced the third cohort of UKinSPIRE fellows.
UKinSPIRE is an internal funding opportunity for UK faculty, jointly funded by the OVPR and UKIC, intended to stimulate high-impact research projects in any discipline linking UK faculty and international collaborators and to establish collaborations with new international partner institutions or add greater depth to existing institutional partnerships.
“Transnational collaborations in research lead to higher impact publications, diversified funding streams to support our faculty’s research, better science and better outcomes for Kentucky and Kentuckians,” said Tim Barnes, executive director of international partnerships and research. “The UKinSPIRE initiative encourages our faculty to engage with colleagues around the world to advance knowledge, innovation and discovery in every field.”
The third call for UKinSPIRE proposals yielded 39 innovative proposals from principal investigators in 12 different academic colleges, representing a wide range of academic disciplines and research fields. Proposals involved research collaborations in 27 countries on six continents. An interdisciplinary review committee comprised of faculty and administrative staff representing nine colleges, UKIC and OVPR, provided recommendations to the vice president for research, associate provost for internationalization and executive director of international partnerships & research.
Based on these recommendations, the following UKinSPIRE projects were selected for support which started July 1:
- “Fostering Collaborations with Hispanic Populations to better study Population-specific Susceptibility factors for Periodontal Disease,” Oelisoa Mireille Andriankaja (College of Dentistry)
- “The Role of Pain, Parafunctional Habits, and Stress on Masticatory Muscle Activity,” Ian Boggero (College of Dentistry)
- “Building Opioid Prescription Data for Epidemiology Research (BORxDER),” Chris Delcher (College of Pharmacy)
- “Arts and Cultural Heritage in Protected Areas: Management Strategies, Sustainable Tourism, and Crisis Impacts,” Leah Hamilton (College of Fine Arts)
- “Exploring the Past to Power the Future: A New UK-Hungarian Partnership for Critical Mineral Research in Alkaline-Carbonatite Systems,” Georgina Lukoczki (Kentucky Geological Survey)
- “Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Digital and AI Technology, and Resistance: The United States and Italy,” Natalie Nenadic (College of Arts and Sciences)
- “Scaling up research tools on citizen engagement in large-scale energy and natural resource projects,” Karen Rignall (Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment)
- “Developing a blueprint for complex tissue regeneration in mammals,” Ashley Seifert (College of Arts and Sciences)
- “Nutrition and health assessment of plant-based meat alternatives: a bilateral research partnership between University of Kentucky (USA) and University of Extremadura (Spain),” Youling Xiong (Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment)
Learn more about UKinSPIRE at research.uky.edu/vice-president-research/ukinspire.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.