The NASD has awarded more than $400,000 to universities in Massachusetts and Connecticut to study how to make financial product information more meaningful and accessible to investors.

According to the NASD, Boston College's Center for Corporate Citizenship at the Carroll School of Management will receive $295,641 to examine how non-financial performance measures are reported as a way of determining how valuable this information is to investors. The University of Connecticut's Department of Communication Science received a grant of $111,599 to study how the visual presentation of information online influence investors' preferences.