To leverage the research development expertise of its members and address the national inequity in funding between the top 150 institutions of higher education (IHEs by total research expenditures) and the broader cohort of IHEs, including all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), emerging research institutions (ERIs), and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs), the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) established the NORDP Consultants Program, a first-of-its-kind pilot effort to reduce the inequities in the nation's research enterprise. This program aims to expand the national research ecosystem by providing research development services to build research capacity at HBCUs, MSIs, and ERIs. Supported by external funding, the services are provided at no cost and engage participating IHEs in several ways, with its signature model being the Cohort program. This is an intensive, two-year engagement during which expert consultants provide up to 600 hours of research development services. In this article, the authors describe the results of Cohort 1, the pilot project, involving four HBCUs.