U-M teams up to address Flint water crisis

Researchers from all three University of Michigan campuses are working with Flint community partners on seven projects that have received initial seed funding from U-M President Mark Schlissel.

UM-Flint Chancellor Susan Borrego and UM-Flint Provost Douglas Knerr hosted more than 140 faculty members from the Flint, Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses in January 2016 to discuss ideas for collaborations and opportunities to work with community organizations responding to the Flint water crisis. The president then committed to providing seed funding, supported by donor gifts, to help get the work started quickly. Proposals generated through this meeting were evaluated by the Office of Provost Martha Pollack and seven projects were selected to receive funding totaling $131,500.

“We look forward to joining with our colleagues from throughout the state to continue our work to provide solutions for our community,” Borrego said. “These efforts will put our leading academic experts in direct contact with our community partners to provide important insight into how the water crisis has affected us and will continue to impact us—so that we all can continue to work together to move Flint forward.”

“Each of the research projects deals with important topics and they will all have different benefits that will lead to better ways to address the issues that have risen from the Flint water situation,” Pollack said.

Another recent partnership between Google and the University of Michigan’s Flint and Ann Arbor campuses aims to provide a smartphone app and other digital tools to Flint residents and officials to help them manage the ongoing water crisis. The app and other tools will help predict where lead levels will be highest in the city’s water, and they’ll pull together information and resources to make the crisis easier to navigate for those affected. That project was made possible by a $150,000 grant from Google.