PROVIDENCE – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a new five-year, $7 million grant to the Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine, a joint research project of the Providence VA Medical Center and Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.

The funding will help cover the multidisciplinary center’s basic research expenses, as well as supplemental and salary costs, according to Brown. The announcement comes as construction continues on a new 24,000-square-foot building at the Providence VA Medical Center that will house the center. The project began last November and is expected to cost $6 million.

The Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine was created in 2004 by Dr. Roy K. Aaron, a professor of orthopedics at Alpert Medical School and a VA investigator who serves as its director, with a five-year, $7.2 million grant from the VA. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and physicians affiliated with Lifespan Corp. are also involved.

“The center’s renewal represents a significant vote of confidence from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense that our mission is valid and productive,” Aaron said in a statement. “Moreover, it allows us to continue our multidisciplinary, multi-institutional approach to problem solving.”

The center’s researchers are exploring new treatments using tissue restoration and advanced rehabilitation that can help wounded veterans and other individuals with limb trauma. They are also developing new cutting-edge prosthetics, including “biohybrid” limbs made of both biological and man-made materials.

The Providence center is one of 13 Rehabilitation Research & Development Centers of Excellence the VA has funded nationwide, but Aaron said not all of them receive renewals when their five-year mandates expire.