UT San Antonio funds 14 interdisciplinary health research teams through new internal challenge

UT San Antonio has awarded $543,274 to 14 interdisciplinary teams through its Health Research Challenge, the university said Monday.

The internal funding program is designed to bring together researchers from both the academic campus and the health campus. The university said the selected teams were chosen from 72 proposals and include nearly 50 researchers in total.

Projects range from two to eight team members, reflecting the program’s emphasis on cross-campus collaboration. UT San Antonio said the awards are intended to support work on critical health challenges and help teams build toward future external funding.

The Health Research Challenge was launched in November 2025 and introduced at a kickoff event that drew more than 200 researchers and staff. The program guidance said the initiative is meant to encourage interdisciplinary work rather than single-discipline proposals.

UT San Antonio said the latest awards are part of that broader effort to connect scientists, clinicians and other researchers across the university’s academic and health campuses.

For the university, the announcement marks the first major funding decision from the program and gives a concrete signal of how it plans to back collaborative health research going forward.