Texas Tech’s persistence was rewarded. On its third try, the grant application from the J.T and Margaret Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts to the National Endowment for the Arts was accepted. A group of multidisciplinary researchers across the university’s system will engage in art-related medical research in a NEA Research Lab.
Noel Zahler, dean of the college and the principal investigator of the Tech lab, says he’s hopeful for succeeding grants to the $147,000 one from the NEA.
“I mean I’d like to see this research funded at $5 million or more, I think that it’s needed, that we can do remarkable things. We know for a fact that, for instance, in stroke, that very few people understand stroke and the way it affects the mind. Some of the unusual things that we’ve learned is that when you lose your ability to speak, aphasia, you don’t lose your ability to sing. I think it’s remarkable.”
Zahler said the NEA grant is the first for the college. He says he believes it’s the university’s first from the independent federal agency. The grant funds the research for two years, and it’s renewable based on demonstrable success.
University president Lawrence Schovanec says the grant validates the work the college does.
“When we talk about the value of scholarship of creative activity, you can not reduce it just to numbers because in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, their funded research is miniscule, but the fact that you’d get an NEA grant, it speaks to the quality of the faculty and students and activities going on there.”
The Texas Tech NEA Research Lab will explore interdisciplinary and translational research across four unique projects, each treating a specific and pressing health concern.
They include the development of an innovative new communication tool for stroke survivors with aphasia; the role musical training plays in helping those with dementia and Alzheimer’s; the use of animated art materials and techniques to help children with specific language impairments and the use of music in autism therapy.
Many of the researchers will use functional magnetic resonance imaging, known as an fMRI, which relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.
Zahler says pursuit of other funding has begun.
“The NEA has been very helpful in encouraging us to look at other possible grants from the government, and we are looking at that. We have grants in the pipeline going forward now to the NSF and to NIH, and we believe those grants will be very helpful going forward. Having the NEA behind us at this point in time opens those doors.”
Zahler says he believes Tech’s Tier I Carnegie research status aided in getting the NEA grant.
“I think it certainly had a large influence on doing it, so aside from the amount of the grant, the prestige of the grant is really important. The program has been in play for three years now, they only give four grants a year. So at this point we’re one of twelve major research universities across the country that has received this grant.”
Zahler says part of the uniqueness of this grant is the NEA’s view that this is a collaborative program. To an extent, data will be shared among the different labs at other universities. Researchers at the various labs will be able to write up their insights and discoveries.
Each lab, he says, has a working group.
“We have periodic virtual meetings where we explain what we’re doing and what we might need advice for and the individuals who have volunteered to be on our technical group help us with some of those problems. In most cases, they’re either working in similar area, arts and medicine, or they’re working in areas that we need to use in order to substantiate our research.”