Brown, URI contribute $50,000 to R.I. Research Alliance

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) announced today that Brown University and the University of Rhode Island will each contribute $25,000 to support STAC’s work to create new research alliances across the state.

STAC launched its R.I. Research Alliance Collaborative Research Award Program in 2006, to promote collaboration across Rhode Island’s research institutions, attract federal funding for research and development in the state and drive related economic-development opportunities.

The $50,000 from Brown and URI will enable STAC to create a plan that assesses the best opportunities for collaboration among the state’s major research organizations and deepens support for the Alliance among participating institutions.

The Alliance also will expand its activities to begin assisting with the preparation of collaborative proposals to major funding agencies – such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) – and support the development and marketing of shared laboratory facilities.

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“STAC and the Research Alliance have made great progress in strengthening connections across the state’s research institutions and in increasing Rhode Island’s competitiveness as these institutions seek additional federal funding,” said Clyde Briant, STAC co-chairman and vice president for research at Brown.

“As we move forward, a stronger statewide Research Alliance will play an important role in building collaborative programs and relationships across all of the state’s major research-producing organizations. For Rhode Island, this level of cooperation and collaboration will be critical to leveraging the state’s resources to build a thriving research and development enterprise in the state.”

Later this month, the Alliance plans to debut a new Web portal and portfolio of online tools that will contain the state’s first comprehensive cataloguing of shared equipment and facilities and a “one-stop” view of activity happening across the state’s research community.

The Alliance also will take a more active role in supporting the EPSCoR/IDeA programs that are awarded to Rhode Island. The NIH’s IDeA programs have brought about $90 million in funding to Rhode Island, while the NSF’s EPSCoR program has brought $6.75 million. Rhode Island researchers also will receive a U.S. Department of Defense DEPSCoR award.

Strengthening these programs and the state’s ability to receive follow-on awards is an important pathway toward increasing Rhode Island’s research capacity, the Alliance said. STAC currently provides executive leadership for the program – and moving forward, the Alliance will create the basis for more centralized EPSCoR/IDeA functions within the state.

In addition to moving forward with an engagement plan and new activities, the Alliance will continue to build momentum with current programs – notably including the Collaborative Research Awards, which aim to support collaborative research projects while attracting significant federal investment. Last year, STAC’s Research Alliance awarded nearly $1.5 million to 32 scientists at 15 research institutions.

The 2008 awards will support nine projects, representing 24 scientists from 14 research organizations across Rhode Island. This year’s awards recipients included a project to develop new ways to treat complicated, at-risk pregnancies; efforts to develop new medicines for breast cancer, asthma and heart failure; deployment of technologies that assist police in obtaining higher-quality evidence from low-resolution video; and a project to develop a fast and inexpensive test for anemia, among others.

Evidence of the program’s success came in August 2007, when of last year’s winning teams – a collaboration between Brown University and Rhode Island College – received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their work on testicular cancer. The dollar value of that award nearly equalled the entire cost of the annual grant program.

“Building a strong and sustainable, statewide Research Alliance is vitally important to our state’s economy and central to our plan for growing more high-wage jobs for Rhode Islanders,” said Saul Kaplan, the executive director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation and a STAC member.

The R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council, or STAC, was created in 2005 to help turn Rhode Island into a regional hub for the life sciences, information technology and other research-based industries. Its R.I. Research Alliance Collaborative Research Award Program grants aim to encourage collaboration among disparate players in the state’s research and development community. For more information about STAC or its Research Alliance grants, visit www.stac.ri.gov.

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