06/01/2026
UMKC and Children’s Mercy have taken a significant step forward in their longstanding relationship, formalizing a new agreement that creates a clearer, faster pathway for Ph.D. students in the natural sciences and the School of Science and Engineering to collaborate directly with hospital researchers. Under the new agreement, the need for individual, project-by-project administrative approvals has been removed, eliminating a key barrier that often slowed the start of collaborative work.
Gerald Wyckoff, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences, worked closely with two individuals from the Children’s Mercy Research Institute, Mark Hoffman, Ph.D., chief research information officer and Laura Ramsey, Ph.D., section chief of individualized therapeutics, clinical pharmacology, toxicology and therapeutic innovation to build a new framework designed to build on existing collaboration in a more intentional, structured way, ensuring that opportunities are easier to access and scale.
“Science is a team sport,” Wyckoff said. “This is a really effective team because we’ve got people who are motivated on both ends of the spectrum.”
Learn more about the streamlined research agreement: https://www.umkc.edu/news/posts/2026/may/umkc-and-childrens-mercy-launch-streamlined-research-agreement.html
