UNMC receives $16 million in earmarks for research

UNMC secured more than $13.6 million in direct earmark funds, plus $2.4 million as part of a collaboration to support research projects for the 2010 federal fiscal year.

The efforts of UNMC’s research corps and support personnel such as Paula Turpen, Ph.D., and government relations specialists Mark Bowen, and Sara Cizek Going, J.D., were key to this funding success, said Tom Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research.

Funding workshop Earmark funding is an excellent opportunity for UNMC researchers. Each spring, UNMC’s Vice Chancellor for Research and Office of Government Relations host a workshop on earmark funding where researchers can learn the latest information about how to apply for earmark funding and other special funding opportunities. Those interested in attending this year’s workshop should send an e-mail to mdbowen@unmc.edu to receive notice once the workshop has been scheduled.

Members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation — in particular U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson and U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry — deserve praise for their efforts to help UNMC secure the funds, Dr. Rosenquist said.

“The UNMC projects always meet the needs of Nebraska and the federal agencies, and the earmark funds play a key role in expanding our infrastructure and expertise,” he said.

The funding breaks down as such (project investigators in parenthesis):

• $10 million from the Department of Defense — $5.7 million to develop a liquid bandage (Mark Carlson, M.D.) and $4.2 million to enhance a computer-aided orthopaedic surgical system (Hani Haider, Ph.D.);
  
• $2.7 million from the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriation that funds NASA to design, simulate and test mini-surgical robots during long-duration space missions, submarine deployments and remote military and research outposts (Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D.);
  
• $500,000 from the Department of Energy to develop nanocrystalline coatings that can improve the efficiency, economy and durability of medical and industrial components (Fereydoon Namavar, Sc.D.); and
  
• $450,000 through Labor-Health and Human Services-Education to support work on the the nation’s first rural database of the effects that genetics, the environment and other factors have in developing chronic diseases (Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., and Lana Linder, Ph.D.); and
  
• $2.4 million from part of a joint $4.8 million DOD earmark with Iowa State University to support the development of vaccines for respiratory infections and central nervous system disorders (Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, Ph.D., and Howard Gendelman, M.D.).