Ten colleges and universities will receive funding from a $20 million National Science Foundation grant as part of an Arkansas science consortium to stimulate science and math research and workforce training the state, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on Monday.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s division of science and technology will receive $20 million over five years to support the Arkansas Advancing and Supporting Science, Engineering and Technology project, or ASSET.
Institutions receiving funding include: the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; University of Central Arkansas; University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Ouachita Baptist University; Southern Arkansas University; Philander Smith College; Arkansas State University; University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; and the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
More than $13.5 million of the $20 million grant to support laboratory research. Funds will also be used to establish the Arkansas-wide Center for Advanced Surface Engineering, CASE.
“CASE provides opportunities for UAMS-based investigators and students to work collaboratively with scientists and engineers from other Arkansas institutions to create nanoscale materials that can be used to improve human health,” UAMS Chancellor Dr. Dan Rahn said.
CASE will also “address problems identified by Arkansas industries as well as create new products for manufacturing, oil and gas, agriculture, forestry, aerospace and defense, food packaging, and healthcare industries,” the AEDC said in a news release.
UAMS Vice Chancellor for Research Lawrence Cornett said that through the project researchers will develop improved ways to study neurons, “providing a better system to eventually test new treatments for neurological disorders.”
The $20 million grant will also help fund the creation of a new research center led by UA, called the Center for Advanced Surface Engineering. Min Zou, who holds the endowed Twenty-First Century Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, will serve as the center’s director, the school said.
The center will comprise of research teams made up of about 40 faculty members from the 10 Arkansas institutions. The center plans to establish “start-up companies to commercialize technologies developed by the center, creating new products and new jobs to bolster the knowledge-based economy in Arkansas while also creating a workforce with the specialized skill-sets necessary to sustain industries that can utilize the center’s research,” UA said in a news release.
Researchers from the center will also mentor students from high school through graduate school in “an integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics pipeline that feeds directly into the center and out to industry,” the school said.
The purpose of the grant is to "ensure our current and future workforce has the skills they need to succeed," Hutchinson said. “This award will go a long way in strengthening STEM-based research and workforce in Arkansas."