The National Science Foundation has awarded a $20 million grant to the University of Rhode Island to lead a project in collaboration with other R.I. institutions, including Brown, for advancements in the life sciences.
The grant comes from the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and serves to fund the project titled "Infrastructure to Advance Life Sciences in the Ocean State," said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing. The grant totals $20 million to be given over the course of five years, $3.6 million of which will go to Brown.
The award was formally announced Sept. 7 at the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences at URI. Gov. Donald Carcieri '65, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., spoke at the event, as did Peter Alfonso — URI's vice president for research and economic development and principal investigator of the project — URI President David Dooley and David Bogen, assistant provost for academic affairs at the Rhode Island School of Design. Wing spoke on behalf of Brown.
This is the "biggest award that URI has ever been given," said Edward Hawrot, a professor of medical science at Brown.
The project itself is meant to "improve the research infrastructure in the state," Hawrot said, and the grant will allow RI institutions to "pursue projects that are under this theme."
These grants are "limited to a certain number of states," Hawrot said, and Rhode Island was made eligible in the last five years due largely to the efforts of Reed.
The award is given to states that need infrastructure, Wing said, and, unlike states like Massachusetts, which have significantly more money, Rhode Island is a lot smaller and in greater need.
Brown received one prior award from the program that lasted from 2006 to 2010, serving to "do much of the same things," Wing said.
What makes the current grant so important is that it involves Brown and URI collaborating together, Wing added.
"Neither one would get it alone," he said. "This is a new era in research collaboration."
The project incorporates all of the institutions of higher learning in the state except Johnson and Wales University.
This collaboration includes RISD, which makes "a great addition to the overall team," Hawrot said.
RISD helps to provide focus on how art and design can further enrich science, he said.
"Imaging has become very important," Wing said. It can be used in visualizing proteins and "projecting data from the human genome," he explained.
The current grant is directed at three research cores, two of which — the genomics core and the core for marine life sciences — are based at URI, Hawrot said.
As a co-principle investigator, Hawrot serves as the director of the third core at Brown, which is the proteomics core. Hawrot is "one of the very key leaders," Wing said.
The proteomics core focuses on protein analysis. Hawrot said this grant money will allow Brown to create "protein profiles of organisms living in the Bay."
But grant money given to Brown will be mostly directed towards bioinformatics research, cyber infrastructure development and graduate student support, Wing said.
Purchasing new bioinformatics equipment will give Brown access to high end computing, Hawrot said, and it will be "a big boost on the biology side."
"Bioinformatics is one of the areas we need to further our investment in," he added.
Brown will have to provide staff support in the area of bioinformatics and "will launch a faculty search very soon," Hawrot said. The grant will also help fund more graduate fellowships
Overall, the hiring and infrastructure growth supported by the grant could have a positive effect on "economic development both short and longer term" in Rhode Island, Hawrot said.
The program will also "offer more opportunities for undergraduates, including at Brown, for summer research," Hawrot said.
One million dollars of the grant were given to Hawrot and will be going exclusively to support computer system infrastructure, which will give Brown the "capacity to do more science" and "allow us to apply for more grants," Wing said.
"It was a big deal for Rhode Island," Wing said, adding that "Brown was prominently featured."
"It was an important award for us," Hawrot said.
