Research News Roundup: Stories about Research at UW–Madison
UW–Madison receives $5.5 million DOE grant to cut synthetic nitrogen fertilizer usage in bioenergy crops
A multi-institution research team led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison received $5.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop a novel approach to cut synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use in two key crops for U.S. ethanol production – corn and sorghum.
The UW-based project is led by Jean-Michel Ane, professor of bacteriology, and involves colleagues from the University of California San Diego and the Pivot Bio company. The collaborators—who call themselves the N2Cereals research team—aim to increase the benefits of biological nitrogen fixation by strengthening the symbiotic relationships between cereal crops and their nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Read the full story here: https://news.cals.wisc.edu/2025/01/27/uw-madison-receives-5-5-million-doe-grant-to-cut-synthetic-nitrogen-fertilizer-usage-in-bioenergy-crops/?preview=true
NOAA Sea Grant invests $4.25 million to further a resilient future
NOAA Sea Grant allocated $125,000 to each of the 34 Sea Grant programs in 2024, for a total of $4.25 million, to further build upon and extend coastal resilience work with communities. The funding is being used to enhance engagement, technical assistance, education and research investments to address climate and weather impacts in local communities.
Three School of Pharmacy faculty advance innovative research projects through the Research Forward initiative
School of Pharmacy faculty received one-third of the nine 2024 Research Forward awards: Professors of Pharmaceutical Sciences Tim Bugni, Lingjun Li, and Weiping Tang earned funding to explore host-pathogen interactions, how cells in the pancreas regulate blood sugar, and the use of artificial intelligence in molecular design.
https://pharmacy.wisc.edu/2024/12/11/three-research-forward-awards-fuel-faculty-innovation/
Tenant Eviction Bans May Have Increased Racial Discrimination During the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the episode “Racial Discrimination and Equity in the Housing Market,” Alina Arefeva, an assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics at the Wisconsin School of Business (WSB), shared insights from her working paper, “Discrimination Under Eviction Moratoria,” with host Sayantani.
The study, along with co-authors Kay Jowers, Qihui Hu, and WSB’s Christopher Timmins, looked at data comprised of 25,000 landlord inquiries made in the spring and summer of 2020 across the 50 biggest cities in the United States. At that time, federal residential eviction bans for nonpayment—known as “eviction moratoria”—were instituted to help renters, many of whom struggled to pay rent when their hours were reduced or jobs eliminated due to the pandemic. Arefeva and her co-authors’ study suggested such bans increased discrimination toward tenants by landlords, even more so when the tenants were Black and Black males in particular.
Read the full story here: https://business.wisc.edu/news/tenant-eviction-bans-may-have-increased-racial-discrimination-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
WSB’s Stuart Craig Goes Beyond the Price Tag of Rising Health Care Premiums
When it comes to the cost of health insurance, most people are only interested in one thing: the dollar amount that comes out of their paychecks.
But it’s what isn’t listed on those pay stubs that interests WSB’s Stuart Craig.
“Employers in the U.S. actually contribute about 80% of most people’s health care premiums, so most of us are shielded from seeing the full cost of our health insurance,” says Craig, an assistant professor of risk and insurance.
There might be more going on behind the scenes than you think, especially as costs associated with health care have soared significantly in recent decades. How employers respond to these increasing costs, and how that ultimately impacts employees in a variety of ways, is at the crux of Craig’s research.
Read the full story here: https://business.wisc.edu/update-magazine/wsbs-stuart-craig-goes-beyond-the-price-tag/