Rhode Island Research Alliance Grant Program to Invest Additional $1.4 Million in Collaborative Research
Related Media Coverage and Links
September 29, 2008 | Print this page | Share This | Email this page
Group seeking next round of applications for landmark award program
The Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council’s (STAC) Rhode Island Research Alliance program today announced that it will invest an additional $1.4 million in research that promotes collaboration across the state's academic and commercial institutions.
The program will continue to support catalytic, collaborative research that 1) represents discoveries likely to deliver value to Rhode Island’s citizens 2) has strong technology development and/or commercialization potential and 3) is well-positioned to attract follow-on funding from federal agencies, corporations and/or foundations.
Continuation of the Research Alliance and Collaborative Research Award program, launched in 2006, was made possible through support from Governor Donald L. Carcieri and the Rhode Island General Assembly.
"Continued support from state leadership for the Rhode Island Research Alliance and its Collaborative Research Award program demonstrates that Rhode Island is committed to making strategic investments into its R&D platform and significant improvements to our innovation infrastructure," says STAC co-chair Jeff Seemann, Dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island’s research community has showed great enthusiasm for the program. Since its inception, STAC has received nearly 100 proposals from researchers at Rhode Island higher education institutions, hospitals, government agencies and private companies. STAC has used a competitive granting process similar to that used by the National Science Foundation to award funding to 17 teams representing 55 investigators from 24 Rhode Island institutions pursuing collaborative projects in medicine, engineering, chemistry, biology, oceanography and environmental science.
The funding has provided support for projects such as the development of high-tech toys to aid children with diseases such as cerebral palsy, using virtual reality to improve the design of prosthetic limbs and the development of new marine-based drugs to fight a common and deadly hospital infection.
“Inter-institutional collaboration is increasingly critical to receiving federal funding awards,” says STAC Co-Chair and Brown University Vice President for Research Clyde Briant. “STAC and the Research Alliance have made great progress in supporting research, encouraging collaboration and increasing our competitiveness for funding.”
Proof of the program’s catalytic nature came when one of the 2007 funding recipients received a grant from the National Institutes of Health totaling $1.4 million to continue their pioneering testicular cancer research. Other awardees have also seen measurable success. One team working to isolate novel therapeutics to fight infections that are resistant to nearly every existing antibiotic has utilized data gathered under the grant to secure nearly $200,000 from private foundations to continue their work. Others teams have grants pending.
Awardees in 2008 continue to do valuable work, such as a unique partnership between emergency room physicians at Rhode Island Hospital and engineers at Brown University who are collaborating to create a reliable, fast and affordable way to diagnose blood ailments such as anemia and jaundice. Using STAC funding, the team has been experimenting with spectroscopy – a technique that evaluates how objects reflect and absorb light – to develop a reliable, quick and non-invasive device to analyze blood. Previous attempts to develop non-invasive and highly accurate hemoglobin monitors have failed, explains Dr. Gregory Jay of Rhode Island Hospital. What makes this project unique is that it is a partnership between physicians and engineers. “That has made all the difference,” says Jay.
According to Jay, he and his colleagues recognized the need for a better device saw a potential solution and reached out to the engineers to make it a reality. “STAC is funding research that is potentially clinically important by supporting the transition from the bench to the bedside,” says Jay. “Not many funding sources do that.”
Awards can also be used to acquire state-of-the-art instruments that give research teams throughout the state access to the most sophisticated technologies available to conduct their experiments. According to Dr. Wolfgang Peti of the NSF/EPSCoR Proteomics Facility at Brown Universtiy, a recently acquired Isothermal Titration Calorimeter and a Mass Spectrometer allow scientists to process new data and substantiate findings from preliminary research, essential steps in securing funding for larger projects.
By providing this type of infrastructure funding, STAC also assists Rhode Island researchers meet federally-mandated requirements for matching funds at the state level, which Rhode Island did not offer. STAC now plays this vital role, which is helping researchers like Peti and others compete for federal research funding, bringing new resources into the state and strengthening Rhode Island’s role as a hub for biomedical research. “It’s a good example of how a relatively small amount of funding can have a dramatic impact,” says Peti.
In addition to the Collaborative Research funding program, the Alliance is using catalytic investments from Brown and the University of Rhode Island to launch a new phase of activity and growth for the Research Alliance. In addition, the Alliance has constructed a collaborative research web portal that catalogues Rhode Island’s research assets and brings more visibility to research happening across the state.
“Building a strong and sustainable Research Alliance is vitally important to our state’s economy and central to our plan for growing more high wage jobs for Rhode Islanders,” says Saul Kaplan, RIEDC executive director and STAC member.
About the Current Program: Apply Today
Grant guidelines are available at www.stac.ri.gov. To apply, researchers must submit a preliminary proposal due October 23, 2008 and a full proposal due November 6, 2008.
The awards will be announced in January 2009.
For more information or to apply for Research Alliance funding contact Christine Smith at
