05/25/05 Life Sciences Discovery Fund

05/25/05 Life Sciences Discovery Fund

Washington Ag May 25, 2005 Legislation was recently signed by Governor Christine Gregoire creating the Life Sciences Discovery Fund. The fund is based on the 350-million dollars in bonus funds that Washington will receive through the tobacco settlement agreement, 35-million a year for 10 years beginning in 2008. That fund will provide grants for research in health and agriculture and is intended to create new jobs and put Washington at the heart of leading-edge research to cure debilitating diseases and improve the quality and yield of agricultural crops. James Cook, interim Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, sees this as a major development for research. Cook: "This is the biggest thing that has happened to fund research in the state of Washington maybe ever. At least the biggest single thing to fund research in this state." Cook says matching funds will be required for the competitive grants. Cook: "And so we need to be cultivating relationships with the private sector and do things together. They do what suits their agenda, we do what suits the public interest." An 11-member board of trustees will review grant applications, which will be evaluated on such criteria as potential health-care impact, future employment impact, and geographic diversity. The governor will appoint seven trustees and four will be legislators. I'm Bob Hoff.
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