Prop. 301 benefits UA research, programs

University of Arizona officials report the $112 million generated by Proposition 301 in its first five years has bolstered vital scientific research and has paved the way for campus-wide technological improvements.

The proposition, which created a 0.6 percent increase in the state sales tax for education, funnels 10 percent of its funds to state universities for the purpose of research and technology development.

The Arizona Board of Regents administers the tax revenues through the Technology and Research Initiative Fund (TRIF), which has allocated $118.9 million to the UA over the next five years.

TRIF funding has already enabled the UA to hire dozens of new professors — 35 in the BIO5 Institute and six in optical sciences — almost none of whom would have been hired otherwise.

Funds have also been used as "seed money," leveraging the budget of UA research programs like Bio5 to pay portions of professors' salaries and finance start-up research.

In addition, TRIF money has contributed to the new optics building, an optics assistantship program, the Water Sustainability Program, and a new one-year master's degree program in education.

"What TRIF lets us do is build on creative ideas people have had in their heads, yearning for funding for a way to be done," Leslie Tolbert, vice president for research, graduate studies and economic development, told the Arizona Daily Star. "As we've been having to make budget cuts to all corners of the university, we've been lucky to have dollars to put into really creative research in multidisciplinary ways."

According to the university, TRIF funding is even beginning to bring money back into the university. For example, Bio5 faculty members who have received funds from Proposition 301 have brought in more than $86 million in outside research grants — more than eight times the amount originally granted.

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For more information:

"UA says Prop. 301 a boon to research, creativity," Arizona Daily Star, 07/24/2006