A multi-institutional contract with the United States Agency for International Development will dedicate $15 million toward the creation of the Peru Extension and Research Utilization (PERU-Hub) to support sustainable agricultural, economic and social improvement in the San Martin region of the Peruvian jungle. The overall project is led by Peru’s Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. The University of Oklahoma received nearly $1.5 million to support the project, coordinated through its Institute for Resilient Environmental and Energy Systems. Additional partners include Utah State University, Purdue University and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, as well as 10 regional and national government bodies, Peruvian universities, and food and agricultural companies, both foreign and domestic.

Medical University of South Carolina researchers will look for links between COVID-19 and poor pregnancy, maternal and infant outcomes with more than $1.5 million in funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. They will study how these outcomes were affected by pandemic-caused disruptions and COVID-19 infections and whether effects were worse in racial and ethnic minority communities. They are particularly interested in how COVID affected maternal cardiovascular complications of pregnancy.