$9M federal grant to fund high-tech research at Ark. universities

The Arkansas Science & Technology Authority received a $9 million federal grant to boost research in high-tech fields of study, officials announced Tuesday.

The grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation, will establish the Arkansas Advancing and Supporting Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative. The authority said the grant money will go to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Arkansas State University.

Gail McClure, vice president of the authority, said the money will go toward attracting scholars, enhancing research and creating new economic opportunities for the state.

"The grant will also help develop knowledge- and technology-based economies that will augment Arkansas' traditional rural-light manufacturing economy," McClure said in a news release. "The potential to further drive knowledge-based economic development is ... a strategy that is critical to the state's future economic competitiveness."

McClure will serve as the initiative's project director.

An official with Arkansas State University said the school will use its money to do research examining agriculture, energy, environment and health. The University of Arkansas will use the money to design arrays of nanosensors that can be used with wireless systems. Both the Fayetteville and Little Rock campuses conduct research on nanotechnology.

"For example, we will develop wearable chemical and biological hazard sensors for firefighters, police, and security personnel," said Professor Vijay Varadan of the University of Arkansas. "In addition, we will develop biosensors for human physiological and ambulatory monitoring, and the detection of pathogens in clinical, food, agricultural and environmental samples."