U of A announces $20M investment in strategic research areas

University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella announced Monday a one-time investment of $20 million for research in space sciences, water and energy, biomedicine and health care, and mining.

“These areas of research align with the university’s institutional strengths, and the expertise needed for their success comes from a broad range of colleges and departments. The opportunity opened by this investment will be university-wide,” Garimella said in the announcement to faculty, staff and administrators.

“This work will build on recent transformational advances in technology and allow us to lead Arizona and our region into a position of global leadership for these key industries.”

The $20 million will come from the Arizona Board of Regents’ Technology and Research Initiative fund.

Garimella told the Star Monday that he also hopes to grow the UA’s research enterprise from $1 billion to $2 billion, but gave no timetable.

In the face of federal funding cuts under the Trump administration, Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, the UA’s senior vice president for research and Innovation, has encouraged UA’s researchers to “seek alternative funding sources from foundations and non-federal sponsors.”

The Star asked Garimella and Díaz de la Rubia Monday about how solid alternative sources would be. Garimella responded that they don’t know how “unsolid” federal funding is.

“We don’t know the extent of the hit,” Garimella said. “Look, we’d be lying if we said we knew where we were going to go. ...But we’re hoping that it all ends up in a place that is not quite as dire and we’ll keep adjusting. All we can do is to do our best to plan. We feel optimistic.”

He has said UA plans to eliminate its budget deficit, now at $65 million, by July 1.

He announced the $20 million investment in concert with “three strategic imperatives” — student support and success on the campus and beyond; pursuing research, creative activity, and scholarship of the highest caliber; and engaging with the local community, the state, the region and the world through the university’s mission as Arizona’s flagship, land-grant university.

The four research areas the UA will focus on, described as “areas of great strategic importance to our state and nation,” include: advancing its leadership in space sciences, space technology, and national security; safeguarding Arizona’s water and energy future through the commercialization of fusion energy; enhancing biomedical discovery and health-care outcomes with artificial intelligence and machine learning; and modernizing mining for critical minerals.

“This major investment will unleash innovation at the U of A, with direct impact on economic growth and workforce development, as well as long-term societal benefit at an even larger scale,” Garimella wrote in his announcement.

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Diaz de la Rubia said he is excited the Board of Regents is enabling UA to spend on these research initiatives. He referred to the example of fusion energy.

“Fusion energy is difficult, but it will be conquered on Earth one day. And, we want to be the ones that conquer fusion energy,” he said.

“You know, the sun powers everything that we do, and so, we want to conquer it here on Earth and be the ones that bring it to the markets, that develop the technologies, engineering, the solutions that are going to allow us to have a future of energy abundance for the planet — not just for us, for our water, and for our needs, but really, for the planet.”

Garimella called the investment seed money.

“So, the money we’ve got is $20 million, it’s a one-time thing. But obviously, to kick off big projects, you need to seed something, you need to invest to grow,” he said. “Ultimately, these will be self-sufficient — not only self-sufficient, they’ll grow. We hope to go from a billion dollars of research to 2 billion dollars of research, right? So, the point is, we need to invest in people, we need to invest in labs, we need to invest in getting the word out. But, we think companies will fund the rest, (along with) the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, private foundations, NIH (National Institutes of Health).”

Timothy Finan, a UA professor emeritus of anthropology who worked on university grants funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development before they were cancelled last week, said such strategic investments in the form of “seed grants” are smaller projects that can then compete for larger amounts from government or private funding sources.

“Twenty million dollars is not significant for a billion=dollar research enterprise; but how it is used is key,” Finan told the Star. “I personally think that the new UA president is anxious to overcome the bad feeling among the research faculty from the last year (when the UA budget deficit was revealed) to now.”

Felicia Goodrum Sterling, a UA professor of immunobiology who works on grants funded by NIH, said $20 million is probably not a lot in the grand scheme of things, especially with topics including space on the agenda.

“Although, if targeted well to strengthen areas with the ability to grow or spark new initiatives within areas of existing strength, it can be impactful,” Sterling told the Star. “The university needs a lift and you do have to spend money to make money and so perhaps this will do something good to lift morale and make people feel confident in UA’s future. That could go a long way. Depends on if it is coupled with deep cuts elsewhere.”

Garimella said he and other university leaders are meeting with different groups such as undergraduate leaders, graduate leaders, the Faculty Senate, executive council, staff council leadership, regents and distinguished professors, and the Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee. He said they are talking to all about the university’s values and identity, as well as what its strategic imperatives should be.

Garimella said the next step will be to produce a draft document, share it with the campus community and gather reaction. He said a survey will also be conducted. “I really want it to be something that the entire campus adopts, feels good about, and feels like it’s representing what they most care about,” he said.

Zackry Guido, a UA assistant research professor at the Arizona Institute for Resilience who used to work on USAID grants, said the funding is welcome, especially at this moment. He said that while his work isn’t aligned with the specific disciplines involved in the announcement, Garimella’s emphasis on transdisciplinary research is welcome and a strength at the university.

“Transdisciplinary recognizes that science and research is stronger by working with decision-makers and community members. We cannot help solve the world’s hardest problems without collaboration,” he said.