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Idaho Higher Education Institutions Win $4 Million In Additional Federal Health Research Funding
October 1, 2002
MOSCOW – The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Idaho Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) an additional $2 million to expand educational and research benefits to higher education institutions throughout the state.
Additional good news for the University of Idaho arrived in the form of a separate $2 million federal grant. The new grant will help fund the renovation of UI life sciences laboratories on the Moscow campus involved in NIH research.
The two new projects combined with three others during the past three years bring to $30 million the total won by UI researchers and their colleagues statewide.
The BRIN was established last year with a $6 million grant to UI, Boise State University and Idaho State University.
The additional $2 million grant that began Oct. 1 expands the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network’s benefits for students and scientists at Albertson College of Idaho at Caldwell, Brigham Young University – Idaho at Rexburg, Lewis-Clark State College at Lewiston, Northwest Nazarene University at Nampa, North Idaho College at Coeur d’Alene and College of Southern Idaho at Twin Falls.
Michael Laskowski, BRIN director and UI professor of physiology, said the $2 million expansion grant will offer significant benefits to the state. “In my 14 years, the cooperation between the state’s higher education institutions has never been greater,” he said.
Laskowski also serves as Idaho director of the Washington, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska and Idaho Medical Education Program.
During the summer, 28 undergraduate summer research fellows supported by the Idaho BRIN spent the summer working in research laboratories at UI, ISU and BSU.
The 10 students in UI labs included students from Albertson College and LCSC. An Albertson student was also among the dozen at Idaho State University. Six BSU students participated in the program. The undergraduate researchers earned $5,000 for 12 weeks work.
"These outstanding undergraduate students represent the future of biomedical research in Idaho,” Laskowski said. The goal of the BRIN is to increase the educational opportunities available for Idaho students both as undergraduates and to help them pursue advanced degrees and research careers within the state.
The Idaho network was one of 11 programs funded nationally by the National Institutes of Health from among 24 applicants, Laskowski said.
The network also will help expand research opportunities for scientists at Idaho universities and colleges by directly funding their work or paying part of their salaries to allow them to focus on their research.
The additional $2 million for the renovation of life sciences labs was secured through a NIH competitive grants program and announced over the weekend by Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho. UI Biological Sciences Department Head Larry Forney leads the project.
The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Center for Research Resources. It will provide University of Idaho scientists with the facilities they need to strengthen and expand health science research programs at the institution. The grant must be matched by UI to pay for the laboratory upgrades.
The NIH funding was won through the state’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Project, which was established with National Science Foundation support.
The EPSCoR project helps to coordinate and win financial support for efforts by higher education institutions statewide to assist Idaho researchers in winning future grants.
Contacts: Charles Hatch, vice president for research, (208) 885-6651, crhatch@uidaho.edu; or Bill Loftus, UI science writer, (208) 885-7694, bloftus@uidaho.edu
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