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House Budget Cuts STAR Researcher Funding for UW and WSU

My bad.  I testified yesterday in House Appropriations and praised committee members for at least protecting the base level of funding for the UW and other four year institutions.  Well, turns out I was wrong, at least for the state’s research universities.

Staff from the Higher Education Coordinating Board brought to our attention this morning a proposed reduction in budget for the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED) that will have a direct impact on funding for both the UW and WSU.  It’s a $1.5 million cut to the STAR Researcher program that was implemented in the underlying 2007-09 budget based upon legislation pushed by Sen. Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup).

A total of $2.4 million was provided in the budget last year for the state Economic Development Commission to work with the UW, WSU and the HECB on a plan to recruit entrepreneurial researchers to the state lead innovation research teams and help promote commercialization within the states’ research universities.  The UW and WSU worked on this plan during the fall and are actively recruiting the first STAR researchers for each campus.

What makes this budget cut so devastating is that the UW and WSU star researcher recruitments are actively underway.  The UW is targeting Dr. Michael Hochberg from the California Institute of Technology who is an international expert in the field of Nanophotonics.  WSU is recruiting Birgitte Kiaer Ahring, a microbiologist from the Technical University of Denmark and a renowned expert in clean technology solutions.  I am told Ms. Ahring recently was in Olympia for a meeting with Governor Gregoire.

The UW and WSU are working hard to get these funds restored to the budget, for without them, a tremendous opportunity to bring two internationally respected researchers to Washington State will be missed.