Points of Distinction

The Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center has been awarded a five-year, $7 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The highly competitive award allows the University of Kansas to provide administrative, scientific and technical infrastructure to support the work of 103 research scientists at the Lawrence and Medical Center campuses as well as at the new Children’s Campus of Kansas City.

A team of four students won the 2011 Nurture Collegiate Healthcare Design Competition with its proposal on how to improve the environment in waiting rooms at neonatal intensive care units. The team beat 46 entries from around the world.

The Hall Family Foundation of Kansas City has committed $18 million to the KU Cancer Center and the Midwest Cancer Alliance, opening doors to innovative cancer treatment and research for the heartland region.

The gift will help the cancer center in its goal of achieving designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center from the National Cancer Institute. The Midwest Cancer Alliance links discoveries made in the lab at KU to a network of hospitals and health care organizations in Kansas and western Missouri.