Strong state sales tax revenues will provide an extra $79.9 million over five years to Arizona universities for various research initiatives.

Thanks to the higher-than-expected tax revenue, the Arizona Board of Regents' five-year, $422 million budget for state universities included a $79.7 million increase over a previous plan.

The extra money comes from the regents' Technology Research Initiative Fund (TRIF), which uses a voter-approved 0.6 cent sales-tax increase to benefit state university research and technology programs.

The fund, which has to date collected more than $300 million, has already helped develop major research initiatives such as the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and University of Arizona's BIO5 Institute.

According to university officials, the additional funding will allow Arizona to recruit more researchers, bolster initiatives, and accelerate new programs at a time when the federal government is cutting its research expenditures.

For fiscal 2006, ASU will receive an extra $8.4 million, which will help support the Biodesign Institute, the department of biomedical informatics, the ASU-UA joint biomedical research fund, and the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

UA's $8.4 million influx will be split among a number of projects, including Phoenix Biomedical Campus expansion, the ASU-UA joint biomedical research fund, the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, and venture fund and capital investments.

Northern Arizona University plans to divide its $4.3 million in extra funding between a healthcare program and statewide expansion.

"From a national perspective, this is very significant," Jonathan Fink, ASU's vice president for research and economic affairs, told Arizona Republic.

"As we are trying to recruit people to Arizona, the fact that we have this level of public investment is very unusual today."

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For more information:

"Universities to reap $79.7 mil," Arizona Republic, 03/10/2007