SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The National Institutes of Health is giving multimillion-dollar grants to two centers in the Dakotas.

The Children’s Health Research Center at Sanford Research in Sioux Falls is getting $11.6 million over five years, and the University of North Dakota medical school in Grand Forks is getting $10.5 million over that time.

The Children’s Health Research Center is a nonprofit formed by Dakotas-based Sanford Health and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Officials there are studying congenital defects and childhood diseases ranging from pediatric brain cancer to kidney disease.

“This grant demonstrates NIH’s commitment to the capable team of researchers in Sanford Children’s Health Research Center as well as the overall organizational vision of Sanford to improve the health of children across the globe,” said David Pearce, vice president and chief operating officer for Sanford Research.

The UND medical school will use its grant money to support work at a biomedical research center on diseases including cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“Researchers at UND are actively working to understand the bases for these diseases and to develop new strategies for treatments or preventions,” said Joyce Ohm, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

The National Institutes of Health, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency.