The BYU Research Development Office presented the third annual Grants, Research and Sponsored Projects, or GRASP, Conference in the BYU Engineering Building on May 22.
The half-day conference focused on addressing funding difficulties and combining ideas for better and more research funding.
The conference was centered on covering new insights and skills for research through a series of breakout rooms and a keynote speaker, featuring the vice president of research at Intermountain Healthcare.
Dr. Samuel Brown, Future BYU School of Medicine research working group lead and Intermountain Healthcare vice president of research, opened the conference by reaffirming the uniqueness of BYU for the type of research capable.
“We are unique," Brown said. "We have a focus that is different from any other university because we’re focused on growing in a meaningful way.”
The conference focused on developing better methods to acquire research funding while also highlighting BYU’s mission to stand out as disciples of Jesus Christ.
“We believe that we take good care of people, part of that means we need to care more," Brown said. "We’re bringing the message of God’s love with healthcare because they will get better care with Intermountain, we need to provide increasingly good care to everybody.”
The remainder of the conference allowed attendees to choose from a series of breakout sessions in the engineering building.
“We’re really just here to help faculty understand how to get more funding to do better and better research," Quinn Earnest, BYU student and research assistant for the College of Engineering, said. "That’s what the Research Development Office is focused on.”
The conference also covered the effect of the forthcoming BYU School of Medicine and its aim to integrate faith and science.
“Traditional medical schools right now are very focused on get them educated, then get them out, sort of triviality," Brown said.
Brown explained the goal of collaboration between the BYU Medical School and Intermountain Health is to be different from the traditional, focused on both improving patient care and creating a unique medical education experience through the faith inspired fire characteristic of BYU.
“BYU is saying they don’t want to follow the trend anymore, we want to help our neighbors,” Brown said.
The conference concluded with a Q&A session from research representatives and a faculty lunch and discussion titled, “What gospel methodology could look like in your research.”
Larry L. Howell, professor and associate academic vice president of mechanical engineering at BYU, emphasized the celebration of the conference’s third year and said that “it just keeps getting better.”
“As we learn better what the faculty need in terms of tools for research funding and getting projects going through collaboration, then we’re better able to help them through this conference," Howell said. "More people are seeing it, and we really just want to help them succeed.”