Louisiana Board of Regents

The Board of Regents Support Fund’s 2011-12 competition is underway, with proposal received during October and November across three programs and nine subprograms. The Board has received a bumper crop of proposals, including 199 in Research & Development (Research Competitiveness, Industrial Ties, and Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars), 235 in Enhancement (Traditional, Undergraduate, and Two-Year), and 37 in Graduate Fellows (Traditional, Graduate Fellowships for Teachers, and BoR/SREB Graduate Fellowships to Promote Diversity). In total, the proposals request approximately $37.4 million in first-year funds, more than four times the $8.7 million projected in the FY 2011-12 Plan and Budget to be available for these competitive programs. Review panels have been selected and are already reading proposals. These panels will meet via teleconference and in Baton Rouge over the coming months, to develop funding recommendations for the Board of Regents by mid-spring. Panel reports, which include funding recommendations and individual proposal assessments, will be posted on the Sponsored Programs website (http://web.laregents.org) in early April, and taken to the Board for action at its April 2012 meeting.

FY 2011-12 NSF EPSCoR Pfund Proposals Received

The top-ranked proposal submitted in the Endowed Chairs for Eminent Scholars Program during FY 2010-11, to establish the Nesser Family Endowed Chair in Energy Law at LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, is the first Chairs proposal ever to receive a perfect score. The holder of the Nesser Family Chair will provide academic, cultural and scientific leadership for the Law Center’s broad-based energy law initiative. This initiative builds on an established tradition in oil, gas, and mineral law into other categories of energy transformation, including biological-based, solar, wind and nuclear.

LSU-Baton Rouge has established a successful diversity initiative through its Graduate School, and has again been ranked the top proposal in the BoR/SREB Graduate Fellowships to Promote Diversity Program. As described in the proposal, expanded use of peer mentoring and professional development opportunities, especially for research, are likely to bolster this already strong program.

A Tulane University research team, led by Dr. W. T. Godbey, was able to target and destroy bladder tumor cells through a minimally invasive technique involving catheterization and gene therapy equivalent to a topical drug administration. Early results suggest that the investigators have a viable cancer treatment with potential for human application.

Dr. Rui Lu of LSU-Baton Rouge has received funding through the Research Competitiveness Subprogram for his top-ranked proposal, “Function and Mechanism of DRH-1 in Worm Antiviral Innate Immunity.” The project will study suppression of viral infection in worms using a combination of cellular, genetic and immunological approaches.

Answers given by Board of Regents staff in response to questions asked in response to the FY 2011-12 Pfund RFP as of November 1, 2011.

Dr. Sarah Liggett of LSU-Baton Rouge will be directing the top-ranked Multidisciplinary Enhancement project, “ScienceDemo: Improving Student Learning in Science through Communication-Intensive, Service-Learning Projects.” The project, truly multidisciplinary in scope, will enhance student learning in large, general-education science courses by “capitalizing on the synergies between the sciences and LSU’s Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership (CCELL); Communication Across the Curriculum (CxC); and Center for Academic Success (CAS).”