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By Sharron Hannon
A request for $4 million for a biomedical-sciences collaboration between the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia is included in the board of regents’ fiscal year 2001 budget  request. The regents voted on the items in their budget package--which totals $1.638 billion--at their September meeting.
Funding for the budget request for the University System must be approved by Gov. Roy Barnes and then by the General Assembly during the 2000 legislative session.
The regents’ budget package also addresses capital funding needs and requests that “the governor recommend a salary increase that will enable Georgia to retain and perhaps enhance its competitive position.”
Other requests include $6.5 million for endowed faculty chairs at University System institutions, $14.2 million for systemwide technology requests, $4.5 million for historically black universities and $2.7 million for rural economic development initiatives.
“This budget addresses realistic needs--for the University System and for our state,” says Chancellor Stephen R. Portch. “It will provide funding to help us anticipate and respond to the increasing demands on higher education, including further positioning of Georgia as a knowledge-based economy.”
The $4 million requested for the biomedical-sciences initiative will be used to expand collaborative, interdisciplinary research and graduate education between UGA and the Medical College of Georgia. UGA President Michael F. Adams, Provost Karen Holbrook and MCG President Francis Tedesco championed the plan to the regents at their September budget meeting.
“A collaboration between our two institutions will expand the flow of research funds to the state of Georgia,” says Holbrook. “Private and federal support for biomedical research has increased dramatically in the past few years and we want to capture a larger share of these funds. By combining expertise, we can create stronger interdisciplinary research programs.”
Eleven of UGA’s 13 schools and colleges have been involved in initial discussions regarding collaborations on health-related research, according to Holbrook. A UGA-MCG working group is exploring ways to take advantage of mutual strengths in molecular medicine and technologies related to human disease, as well as behavioral and health-policy research.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for two strong universities to pool resources,” says Tedesco.
Stuart Feldman, who recently stepped down as dean of UGA’s College of Pharmacy, is serving as acting director of the working group, which is already planning joint teaching and scholar-in-residence programs, plus dual-mentorship graduate programs. Opportunities for an undergraduate research experience at MCG also are being explored.
“In the early decades of the next century, health on a global level will be one of the major challenges we face,” says Feldman. “We want to focus the significant energies of UGA and MCG to seek solutions to the health problems that touch Georgians and others across our planet.”
An endowed chair in biomedical sciences at UGA is included in the regents’ $6.5 million budget request for the Georgia Eminent Scholars Program. The creation of an endowed chair under this program requires at least $1 million--a portion raised by the institution and a portion provided by the state. Under the current formula, research universities must provide $750,000 in private funds, matched by $250,000 from the state.
UGA has identified private funds for four additional chairs in the current budget request: in new media studies, forest biology and productivity, newspaper strategy and management, and information systems and entrepreneurship.
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