Would you support a project that turned a $7.7 million investment into an additional $44.6 million of research funded by external parties, supporting 193 research related employment positions and resulting in the creation of seven patents, plus the development of six intellectual property licenses? Thats just the recent impact of the Research Challenge Fund. My husband, David Boland, has created a survey and has written in support of amending Senate Bill 385 to protect the Research Challenge Fund. I had no idea the Fund has had such a powerful impact. Please read Davids letter to WV Senators below, and feel free to make a call or send a note regarding this. Dear Honorable Senators, Last week I read Anne Barths article about pending legislation that would reduce funding by 15% for the Research Challenge Fund. After making a few inquiries, I was told the House passed bill 4266 with an amendment reducing the funding by 10%. I am opposed to any reduction in funding to the Research Challenge Fund. This initiative is vital to our state. As a reminder the priorities of the Fund are listed below: The Priorities of the Research Challenge Fund, as established by the Legislature, are to: -focus on research that builds on the state’s existing research strengths in emerging science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields develop students and faculty -promote collaboration between Grades K-12 and higher education -recruit eminent scholars to strengthen research capacity and competitiveness -seek economic development projects that have significant potential to attract industrial, federal and foundation partners and funding. The Research Challenge Fund has produced meaningful results: Five-year Research Challenge Grants have produced big results. With the second round of Research Challenge Grants in 2007, the State of West Virginia invested $7.7 million in five-year Research Challenge Grants to four research teams at West Virginia University and one at Marshall University. The five projects chosen for funding were selected competitively from 15 proposals submitted. As the original funding for the five-year grants came to an end in 2012, those research teams had turned the state’s $7.7 million investment into an additional $44.6 million of research funded by external parties, supporting 193 research related employment positions and resulting in the creation of seven patents, plus the development of six intellectual property licenses. Read the final report (as a pdf document): 2007-2012 Five Year Outcomes Report wvresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2007-2012-Five-Year-Outcomes-Report.pdf A great return on the original investment also resulted from the first round of Research Challenge Grants awarded in 2002. During that funding cycle, the state awarded $8.4 million. After the five-year period, six research projects leveraged external funding of more than $20 million, resulting in five startup companies, 10 patent applications and five patents. I created a brief online form to solicit input from other constituents. Attached is the first name, zip code and comments from the West Virginians who completed the survey. Here is a link to the survey. https://wvgreenworks.wufoo/forms/amend-senate-bill-385/ The comments indicate a desire to keep the Research Challenge Fund fully funded. Many of the respondents believe programs like this are imperative to move the state forward. Any program that creates jobs, attracts intellectual capital and multiplies invested dollars by nearly six times is, by all measures, extraordinarily effective. Proposing a reduction of funding for the Research Challenge Fund is short-sighted. The impact on the state budget is minimal and this bill does little to solve the underlying problem of declining revenues and increasing expenses. However, continued full support of the Fund has the potential to increase tax revenue through job creation and industry. The return on investment is too compelling to be curtailed. I implore you to amend Bill 385 so it doesnt impact funding to the Research Challenge Fund. Thank you for your continued service to this state. Sincerely, David Boland **content highlighted in blue was copied from West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission website
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 06:19:48 +0000
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