STAC hands out $1.4M in grants for collaboration

THE RHODE ISLAND SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY COUNCIL handed out grants Wednesday for research that ranged from fighting disease in shellfish to healing burns with vibrations. Above: Healthy oysters on display in Marennes, France. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/CAROLINE BLUMBERG
THE RHODE ISLAND SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY COUNCIL handed out grants Wednesday for research that ranged from fighting disease in shellfish to healing burns with vibrations. Above: Healthy oysters on display in Marennes, France. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/CAROLINE BLUMBERG

PROVIDENCE – Research into fighting disease in shellfish and healing burns with vibrations were among eight projects awarded more than $1.4 million in state grants Wednesday, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee announced.

The annual Rhode Island Research Alliance Collaborative Research Grants are designed to advance scientific work with the potential to create valuable commercial technology, and projects funded this year involve 20 scientists at nine different institutions or companies.

The winning projects, selected by the Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council, all involved collaborative research in Rhode Island and were given priority for their commercialization potential and positioning for possible federal funding.

“These grants are an investment in the future of our state,” Chafee said. “I am pleased to see this level of collaboration between industry and academic institutions, and I look forward to the next level of research and innovation these grants will make possible.”

- Advertisement -

This year’s grants will go to:

  • The University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University to study new ways to prevent disease in aquaculture through protective bacteria, $166,820.
  • Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island to study the effects of global warming on salt marshes, $92,759.
  • Brown University and the University of Rhode Island to study biomarkers in algae that could provide a climate history of Narragansett Bay, $199,940.
  • The University of Rhode Island and Labonachip LLC to study new, easier-to-read multi-step immuno-diagnostic tests, $200,000.
  • The University of Rhode Island and Salve Regina University to study the causes and impacts of algal blooms in Narragansett Bay, $199,759.
  • Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University and Perfuzia Medical Inc. to test a device that uses mechanical vibration stimulation to reduce pain and heal the wounds of burn victims, $200,000.
  • The University of Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay Estuary Program to study the nitrogen cycle in Narragansett Bay and how global warming will effect microbes in bay sediments, $159,993.
  • Brown University and the University of Rhode Island to develop practical uses for graphene, a recently discovered material with unprecedented tensile strength, electrical and thermal conductivity, optical transparency and gas impermeability, $200,000.

No posts to display