A bill designed to fund shared research projects at Kentucky’s public universities – including Northern Kentucky University – advanced to the House Wednesday. Its sponsor is Senate President Robert Stivers, who told LINK nky he proposed the legislation in Senate Bill 1 after watching universities “fighting” instead of collaborating on research ideas.
“I watched this among universities for years,” Stivers (R-Manchester) told LINK nky during a Tuesday chat with reporters. “Well, why are we fighting over it? Why don’t you come together and collaborate on it and research it between all universities? That was kind of the tipping point for me.”
SB 1 would create five university research “consortiums” or collaborations funded with seed money generated from interest on a newly created endowed research fund. Stivers believes the endowment could eventually provide between $1 million and $2 million each year for each of the five consortiums.
Funds would be distributed by the Council on Postsecondary Education based on joint applications from “two or more Kentucky public universities’ – not just top state research universities that include the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.
Stivers told LINK nky he included “two or more” in the bill on purpose. “I didn’t want (the biggest research schools) to gobble it all up.”
“There are all types of things and amazing opportunities to try to create the dynamic and energy of a new economy by creating this process,” Stivers said of SB 1 before Wednesday’s vote. The bill passed the Senate 36-0 with one pass vote, from Sen. Adrienne Southworth (R-Lawrenceburg).
Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer (R-Alexandria) is the cosponsor of the bill.
Only one of the five consortiums is mandated explicitly in the bill. That single slot would be saved for the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Trust, a research initiative that state lawmakers created over two decades ago.
“I’ve watched the Spine and Brain Injury Trust for years, how UK and UofL have partnered,” Stivers told LINK nky. “We have funded them to the tune of about $2 million to $2.5 million a year. Their model is ‘OK, we’ll give you $200,000 a year for the next three years. At the end of that three years, you’re done. What you’re expected to do at the end of that three years is you’re expected to be ready for the big time – we’ll set you up to make the NIH (National Institutes of Health) application.’”
Federal funding through the NIH – which invested nearly $45 billion in research in 2022 alone – and other grants lead to exponential growth of research that can begin with bills like SB 1, said Stivers.
The other four consortiums selected would be up to the council. The bill only requires the agency to consider two metrics when evaluating applications: the consortium’s “impact upon human quality of life advancement, prioritizing innovations that advance medicine, health or economic development” and “additional funding sources for seed money … and anticipated future funding sources and amounts.”
Besides that, Stivers told LINK nky the possibilities are practically endless.
“It could be a (project between) Morehead and Eastern (Kentucky University), because Eastern has the aviation program. Morehead has aerospace. Maybe they want to look at design in aerodynamics. Maybe there’s something between Northern (NKU) and UK that they do on conductivity and chip production. The only thing that limits it is your imagination,” Stivers told LINK nky.
“It needs to be cutting edge,” he added. “Then all the sudden you start to see private dollars coming in. You start seeing the spin offs.”
What’s less clear is how much state funding the endowment fund could receive, if any, this legislative session. State funds, federal funds, contributions and gifts would all be accepted into the fund under SB 1. But Stivers said he doesn’t expect funding for the endowment to be included in the Senate budget proposed in the coming weeks.
State funding, if approved at all, would probably be added in the session when both chambers hash out a final budget in conference committee, said Stivers.
“(SB 1) is going to have to pass in the House and they’re going to have to agree with the premise. And some of them may not agree with my premise, I understand that. At least it’s created a thought process that people are thinking maybe this is the direction we should go,” he told LINK.
One of the 36 senators voting in bipartisan support of SB 1 was Louisville Democrat Sen. Gerald Neal, who called the bill “the most visionary action that we’re undertaken this session.”
Postsecondary education is also behind another Stivers proposal this session. That legislation is a resolution (SJR 132) to require the Council on Postsecondary Education to look at the feasibility of turning Hazard Community and Technical College into a four-year state university. The council would be required to bring recommendations back to the legislature in time for the 2025 annual legislative session.
So far, the proposal hasn’t been heard in committee.
Stivers – who made it a point to clarify that Hazard is not in his district – says he isn’t sure what will happen with SJR 132 this session. But he said he sees the idea of a new four-year university as something that could use the council as “a neutral broker,” similar to the agency’s role under SB 1.
“Have the council look at the system holistically to see what’s best,” said Stivers. “That’s why I think the process is kind of flawed – each one of these universities are coming up with a new project or program. I think they should have gone to CPE first and said this is what we’re looking at. Can we afford it? Is there really a demand for it? What’s it going to cost, what’s the ramp up, what’s the sequencing, would it be better suited at another university, those types of things.”