Grant to fund research, fellowships

$20M to back Center for Advanced Surface Engineering

A $20 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation will support a collaboration among 10 different Arkansas universities bringing scientists together to work on developing new high-tech materials for use in manufacturing, food packaging and other industries.

With an additional $4 million in state matching funds, the grant allows for the establishment of the Center for Advanced Surface Engineering. Funding will also support fellowships for students who would help with research.

Min Zou, director for the center, said it provides for a way to boost the state's competitiveness in research and industry.

"It's the opportunity to collaborate with people from different institutions and different disciplines, and doing cutting edge research that really has great potential to improve Arkansas industry and also potential to generate startup companies that will create high-tech jobs," said Zou, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, which will be the lead site for the center.

Researchers in the grant application identified four key areas that will guide the effort, Zou said.

Work will focus on reducing friction and increasing durability in machines, including nanoscale research, an area of specialty for Zou; cellulose-based research that could lead to improvements in food packaging, for example; research into what are known as tunable materials that can exhibit different optical and acoustical properties; and development of materials that will aid scientists in growing brain cells for research.

The grant awarded to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission's Division of Science and Technology is from the National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a program with a budget this year of $159.7 million.

Awards go to jurisdictions that receive a smaller share of National Science Foundation funding, with 25 states and Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam currently eligible for the grants.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission announced the award Monday, as did the National Science Foundation and some of the participating universities.

"This award will go a long way in strengthening STEM-based research and workforce in Arkansas," Hutchinson said, referring to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. "All eyes are now on Arkansas because of the strides we are making in science and technology. We must continue to build on this momentum to ensure our current and future workforce has the skills they need to succeed."

Gail McClure, with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said much of the funds will be used to purchase high-tech equipment and supplies, with nearly $1 million going to improve computer technology infrastructure to help researchers better share large amounts of data.

About $6 million in funds will go to support graduate student fellowships for about 40 students, McClure said. A much smaller amount, roughly $250,000, will go toward outreach efforts for students not yet of college age to promote the sciences and technical fields, McClure said.

She said such a boost in "engagement" with such young learners will "try to capture their interest when they are in junior high, high school, and then get them interested in this when they enroll in college."

In 2010, state researchers received a similar $20 million award from the National Science Foundation to focus on solar cell technology, McClure said.

The previous grant involved fewer institutions, and McClure said this time the commission wanted to have more collaborators from the southern part of the state.

Participants, in addition to UA-Fayetteville, are: the 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 and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. McClure noted that the UA Division of Agriculture is also participating.

Lawrence Cornett, vice chancellor for research at UAMS, said the new center allows for the type of collaboration needed to answer tough technological problems.

"I think it opens the door to collaborations with the type of scientists we don't have on our campus," Cornett said.

Malathi Srivatsan, assistant director of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and a professor of neurobiology at Arkansas State University, said researchers collaborated closely to come up with the idea for the center.

"The idea came from a bottom-up approach. It came from researchers from so many different campuses," said Srivatsan, describing as many 60 researchers involved in initial discussions about the project beginning in 2013.

"It's very much a collaboration from the start," Srivatsan said. "That's why we all truly believe that this collaboration is going to be really successful."

A Section on 08/04/2015

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