UNM and New Mexico State University have received a grant from the U.S. Department of the Army that will fund the Universities to the tune of $2-8 million per year for research and development.
The grant, part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Education Institution Strategic Partnership, is meant to provide funding for universities, which in turn provide research to the agency.
"The Education Institution Strategic Partnership program, to include both partners, is valued at $51 million for the length of the program, currently anticipated at nine years," said David Rigby, chief of corporate communications for DTRA.
New Mexico Tech and Pennsylvania State University received an identical grant.
Rigby said the agency forecasts each university to receive as little as $2 million per year or as much as $8 million, but that both are guaranteed $100,00 for three years. Two additional three-year periods are also on the table, he said, but not guaranteed.
"The government could change and say, 'we don't need that [program] anymore,' " he said.
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Terry Yates, UNM vice president for research, said UNM professors and administrators developed a pre-proposal as part of a national competition for the funding, then submitted a full proposal to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. He added that NMSU submitted a similar proposal and that UNM will be the project leader.
Both proposals included either a description or a demonstration of the universities' capabilities to support five missions within the DTRA said, Lt. David Gai, a public affairs officer for the agency.
"Each of the partners' presentations addressed combat support, technical development, threat reduction, threat control and support functions," Gai said.
Working within an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract, UNM will pursue projects within a framework of need set forth by the agency, Gai said.
Yates said UNM researchers from fields such as English, engineering, medicine and science could potentially participate on the projects. Studying nuclear safety under stockpile conditions and developing sensors to detect terror strikes, he added, are among possible research areas.
"It's my feeling that virtually any part of the University could be involved," Yates said. "We can support quite a few projects on $51 million."
The research, Yates said, is geared toward a predictive understanding of the future.
"Instead of just reacting, we are looking to be proactive," he said.
Yates added that the two universities will collaborate with Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories on the project.
Yates said of the $248 million brought into the University in 2002, 60 percent came from the federal government.
Some aspects of the research and its applications may become classified, which would require University researchers to get security clearance, Yates said. He added that "virtually none of the projects" listed in UNM's proposal to the DTRA were classified.
Sean Gallagher-Gonzales, a UNM student and member of the New Mexico Public Interest Research Group, said he hopes the University will be careful in the projects it chooses to pursue within the program.
"My feelings are that in the university setting, no violence should be propagated," Gallagher-Gonzales said. "Then again, this is very necessary work."
He added that he would like to see research conducted out in the open when possible.
Yates said that congratulations are in order to the entire faculty of UNM for the hard work it took to be considered for the grant.
"Really the proposal got funded based on the strength of our faculty," he said. "This clearly indicates that UNM is moving into another level of national visibility."
