When ocean chemist Kim Popendorf started her lab at the University of Miami, she expected to spend most of her field work on research cruises, collecting water samples from the ocean to analyze and better understand Earth's carbon cycle.
Soon after arriving, however, Popendorf was invited to join a research team to explore the human impacts of harmful blue-green algal blooms that often appear in Florida's freshwater sources. Her expertise at scrutinizing microscopic particles and bacteria found in water and the surrounding air would come in handy, so Popendorf agreed.
Now in its seventh year, the project—conducted with public health sciences professor Alberto Caban-Martinez and environmental engineering professor Helena Solo-Gabriele —is supported by the Florida Department of Health. The team works with 180 participants across Florida who live or work near freshwater sources affected by algal blooms. Participants regularly send water samples and share health data, allowing researchers to track exposure and outcomes over time.
"So far we have learned that some people are being exposed to toxins in their backyards, but it is at lower concentrations than when we do targeted sampling in areas we know have a harmful algal bloom," Popendorf said.
They will follow these participants to see the long-term impacts to their health, yet, Popendorf said she never would have gotten into the project if it were not for the University of Miami Laboratory for Integrative Knowledge, or U-LINK program, which inspired her to work collaboratively with faculty from across the University's three campuses, pooling their expertise to explore local and national problems.
"Placing interdisciplinary research as a priority at the University level and reinforcing its value through U-LINK was helpful," she said. "It enabled us to get things off the ground and has led to so many good things. I've mentored many students through the project; we are working with community organizations across the state; and we have research papers coming out."
Theirs is just one of the 74 interdisciplinary teams awarded funding through U-LINK, which has now distributed more than $7 million in seed funding.
Launched in 2018, U-LINK was created through the University's Office of the Vice Provost of Research and Scholarship to encourage research collaboration among faculty members from across the institution to tackle some of society's largest problems. Through an annual call for applicants, the University selects the most promising ideas and teams can receive up to $100,000 in seed funding. The hope is that if a team's work produces useful solutions or results, they can apply for external research support to scale up their work.
"U-LINK drives interdisciplinary research and scholarship because we challenge scientists who don't traditionally work together to try to answer big problems," said Caban-Martinez, interim vice provost of research and scholarship. "It's a ribbon through all of the University's schools and colleges to answer a big idea and we fund those that could have the most societal impact and greatest potential for funding outside of the University."
Each year, the program puts out a request for proposals with a broad theme that applicants must answer with an interdisciplinary team of faculty members. Past topics have included climate resilience, mental health, artificial intelligence, and the latest 2026 projects awarded funding have to do with chronic diseases.
Many teams have garnered federal and private funding for their interdisciplinary projects after U-LINK pilot studies. In fact, within the past eight years, U-LINK project follow-ups have attracted more than double the amount invested by the University in external funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense; The Children's Trust; the National Science Foundation; Health Foundation of South Florida; ViiV Healthcare; JPMorgan Chase; along with other private company partnerships.
Novel solutions
Faculty members have come up with dozens of ideas to improve knowledge of the world and to make positive changes in South Florida and beyond. Projects range from efforts to restore coral reefs in South Florida to teams working to improve the physical and mental health of former inmates through a transition clinic model, along with creating technology tools to integrate AI into concerts, track and combat extremist online conspiracy theories, detecting Alzheimer's and dementia earlier, and identifying speech or developmental delays in preschool classrooms.
One prototype, called SEAHIVE, was built to help protect coastlines and seawalls from erosion and storm surge. It was one of the earliest U-LINK teams, bringing together faculty members from the College of Engineering, the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, and other schools, with funding that enabled the group to test the innovation in real-life conditions. The hexagonal, perforated, concrete tube-like system was designed to dissipate wave energy, in the same way as artificial coral reefs or seawalls. Today, the SEAHIVE system is commercialized and licensed by 1Print, a 3D printing company, as an eco-friendly solution to shield coastlines and regenerate marine life.
Pilot installations are now in place off the coast of Miami Beach and at Wahoo Bay in Pompano Beach, where local government leaders want new solutions to safeguard their shores. The SEAHIVE units are now becoming a magnet for marine life, with live corals growing on them, while fish, crustaceans, and sea turtles swim by.
The project prompted engineering professor Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos to work closer with his colleague Prannoy Suraneni on advancing the material and structural aspects of the SEAHIVE, including through a U.S. Department of Defense-funded project. Since then, both have shifted their research toward more resilient innovations.
Suraneni has now been involved in seven different U-LINK teams and is currently working on an artificial intelligence project to fortify concrete and lower its carbon dioxide emissions. His experiences also helped Suraneni join the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Risk and Resilience Tech Hub, an effort to commercialize concrete and coastal solutions and reduce barriers to their adoption, among other objectives.
"U-LINK has helped me to meet fantastic collaborators and to expand into coastal resilience, which I hadn't thought about before, as well as coral restoration," said Suraneni, an associate professor of civil and architectural engineering with expertise in concrete materials. "I've now spent a lot of time working on team science, so it's helped me develop as a professional and has given me an appreciation for other disciplines. Our focus on interdisciplinary research is one of the things I truly love about the U, and it sets us apart from other institutions."
Community impact
A team led by Amy Clement, professor of atmospheric sciences, along with professor Katharine Mach; assistant professor Kilan Ashad-Bishop in environmental science and policy; and Scotney Evans, an associate professor of community psychology, is exploring the impacts of extreme heat on South Florida, years after the group's first U-LINK grant. While the team's initial work attracted more than $7 million in external funding from groups like NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency, it also prompted them to create pipelines for information sharing. One is an Urban Heat Research Group led by graduate students, which holds monthly meetings to share heat-related research with government leaders, community organizations, students, and faculty members from institutions across Florida who study heat resilience. They also forged a partnership with the CLEO Institute, which disseminates heat information to health care professionals.
The research gleaned from their project and the work in Miami has led to several journal articles and news reports, revealing the inequalities exacerbated by high temperatures. It also helped convince the National Weather Service to lower its heat advisory threshold from 108 degrees Fahrenheit to 105 degrees in 2023, Clement said.
"We're advancing a new concept in heat risk research, which is that heat should be viewed as a chronic hazard rather than an acute hazard, which comes and goes," Mach added. "A heat wave is like an acute illness, but we don't see that in the same way in Miami because of the extended level of potentially dangerous heat over a period of time that requires people to adapt in ways that are very dependent on their socioeconomic context."
Miami-Dade County officials have also used use information gathered from the team to guide heat-related policy. But Clement points to U-LINK as the stimulus for her work in this area.
"Sometimes the most interesting and the most important problems are at the intersection of disciplines, so if we go about our disciplinary work, we don't see them," said Clement, a climate scientist. "U-LINK is an invitation to pivot a little, so if you provide an incentive for people to work on issues outside of their traditional disciplines and provide some support, it can go a long way for important problems that people care about."
Another team, including journalism professor and information designer Alberto Cairo, worked on suggestions to improve the National Weather Service's hurricane forecast cone, many of which were adopted by the agency during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Branching out
The U-LINK program has also led to other Universitywide initiatives. A year after its launch, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship created a student version, called the U-LINK Predoctoral Fellowship program. It offers graduate students funding to help explore interdisciplinary research projects. In addition, several interdisciplinary U-LINK courses were created in which students can learn about topics such as Miami's climate or work on improving an inclusive video game with an interdisciplinary faculty team.
Regardless of the outcome, many faculty members who have participated in the program think it is a great way to forge interdisciplinary work, even if the positive impacts occur years after the research. Since their research began, Popendorf said some Florida municipalities have started treating their waterways to prevent blue green algae blooms. Suraneni also said that big policy shifts take time, but these collaborative research endeavors are worth the effort.
"These are truly enjoyable projects where I have learned a lot, and if you think big picture, they tend to lead to really good outcomes," he said. "U-LINK is a fantastic investment in the people at the U."
