Delaware State University receives National Science Foundation funding to allow undergraduates to take part in ongoing hemp research.
DSU leveraged its ongoing hemp research to secure the three-year, $591,628 grant.
The grant will fund the investigation of undergraduate research, and its benefits to students.
Students involved will be part of the university’s ongoing hemp-related research, according to assistant professor of Chemistry Kimberly Milligan.
"Our goal at the end of the day is to give research experiences to students that normally wouldn't get it," said Milligan. "So the CHIP program or our CUREs Hemp Initiative Project is designed to introduce freshman and sophomore students to research real research experiences in hemp."
Milligan says this funding will allow a variety of undergrads to learn from the school’s work with hemp.
"Students will learn how to cultivate hemp, process hemp, isolate hemp, compound such as CBD, and then study the effects of those compounds in different areas of science," said Milligan. "So chemists will look at hemp as a biofuel. Students in biology will look at the effects of CBD."
This past winter Delaware became the second East Coast state approved to administer a domestic hemp program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The DSU research supports that effort.
DSU is in its second year of a Hemp Research Pilot Project. University researchers are studying the hemp harvests of Delaware farmers, and they are growing their own hemp crops.
Hemp is used to produce clothing textiles, industrial textiles, paper, building materials and products to support other agricultural industries.
