Grassroots: Leveraging mission-aligned developmental programs to enhance the academic health center

Academic health centers (AHC) characterized by an integrated mission serving education, research and clinical care reflect these values in the institution's vision, decision-making and culture. Embracing this strategy, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) created a novel, competitive funding initiative through its faculty practice with the Health Services Foundation General Endowment Fund (HSF-GEF). This partnership with the faculty practice leveraged faculty and staff creativity to inform and lead capacity-building and innovation in patient-oriented and laboratory research, clinical care development and education aligned with the best interests of the enterprise. Since 1996, the HSF-GEF has invested over $66M in 442 peer-reviewed proposals led by transdisciplinary teams representing strategic advances with strong potential to generate future extramural support, to improve healthcare delivery, to enhance research capacity and to promote active learning. Beyond financial return on investment, program evaluation revealed benefit on culture, collaboration, camaraderie and infrastructure. By engaging the broad workforce to articulate, select and implement projects, UAB has fostered a purpose-driven culture of collaboration within the AHC that thrives on broad representation, enthusiasm, and ingenuity as well as peer engagement across multiple schools in the academic community.