MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University and Johns Hopkins University have established a joint research partnership. Researchers from both institutions will work together on difficult challenges in health, science and society.
WVU President Michael Benson, who announced the agreement at the beginning of Friday’s WVU’s Board of Governors meeting, said the JHU-WVU Research Collaborative is funded with $7 million—$5 million from JHU and $2 million from WVU, which comes from fundraising efforts.
“West Virginia University and Johns Hopkins University are forging an unprecedented partnership to encourage joint research projects between our two institutions,” Benson said. “We’re so grateful to the donors who have contributed to this $7 million effort.”
JHU President Ron Daniels, who also spoke during Friday’s meeting, said the two talented groups will be asked to develop projects and develop preliminary data that can be used to secure additional external funds to support research.
“To be able to do this with an outstanding public institution in a red state from the perspective of a private institution in a blue state at this point in America adds another exciting dimension to our work together,” Daniels said.
WVU officials said in forming the partnership they learned there’s already some collaborations and partnerships between the two universities. Incoming WVU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Beverly Wendland said this partnership will grow and develop over time as the two R-1 institutions combine forces to attack vexing problems.
“This program we’re developing here is just going to accelerate and further expand those opportunities to who knows where because the sky is the limit, I think,” Wendland said.
Interim Provost at JHU Lainie Rutkow envisions virtual sessions between the institutions to jumpstart the effort and share information. That will develop into a regular series to keep research projects moving.
“A seminar series, a regular virtual series that will bring together our researchers from WVU and Hopkins so we can jumpstart some of these collaborations,” Rutkow said.
Benson went on to say the two institutions should use their expertise and partnership to go after additional grant funding opportunities as the partnership grows.
“Competitively apply for seed funding that ideally that will position teams to secure additional funding in the future through more federal grant opportunities and other external sources,” Benson said.
WVU BOG member Dr. Patrice Harris praised the agreement. She said partnerships like this can help universities like WVU during ongoing challenging times for higher education.
“Higher Ed institutions are going to have to make some tough choices, we all know that over the next several years,” Harris said. “This is one innovation partnerships that can still offer students opportunities maybe when one institution cannot.”
Johns Hopkins University is one of the most prestigious in the U.S. It’s located in Baltimore. WVU’s Benson has written a biography about Johns Hopkins’ first president, “Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University.” The book published in 2022.
Benson also earned a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins.