UH-Manoa seeks University of Hawaii-Manoa officials are searching for new sources of money for the innovative Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center when National Science Foundation support ends next year.
sources to continue
marine center
The original grant will expire,
but officials remain committed
to the bioproduct projectBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comThey had hoped for another five years of funding from the foundation, which provided $12.4 million to get it started in 1998.
Payments will continue the next 18 months under the original grant, largely to support about 20 graduate students in the program.
But the expected $2.7 million for that period will be reduced by about one-third, said Charles Kinoshita, interim center director.
Despite the setback, UH officials said they are committed to the center and will maintain it until it can be self-supporting.
"As far as we're concerned, MarBEC is alive and well, and we'll continue to nurture it until it can stand on its own two feet," said Edward Laws, UH interim vice chancellor for research and graduate education and a former center researcher.
"To us it's the first of what we hope will be many such centers to facilitate research collaborations between the university and private sector."
The center was established at UH as one of 14 national engineering centers with the University of California-Berkeley as a partner.
The idea was to conduct research on microorganisms, train engineers and develop technologies that the program's industrial partners could use for new pharmaceutical, food and other products.
University officials were optimistic about a renewed grant after a National Science Foundation team came here in February to review activities and plans.
Kinoshita, who took over the center in November as the full-time interim director, said the foundation representatives liked the quality of research, but "maybe several things didn't strike the right chord with them."
He said they indicated the program did not have enough industrial partners. "We have seven right now, and we thought that wasn't at all bad. The good thing about the achievements, three came after Nov. 1. But perhaps that was not good enough."
Also, they had concerns about leadership changes in the program, he said, "but I don't think that was necessarily the overriding factor."
Kinoshita is the program's third director, and Laws said "he has done a heck of a job," making a lot of progress in a short time.
Laws said he suspects the foundation's decision to end its support for the program was "a foregone conclusion."
Interim UH Chancellor Deane Neubauer said in a letter to the National Science Foundation that the administration is strongly committed to the center and will continue to support it.
He said two new faculty positions are being advertised for the center and a new graduate program is being developed to train chemical and marine bioprocess engineers.
By the end of the center's first five years, he said, the UH's cost share will total $5.1 million.
The program will move this year into the Pacific Ocean Science & Technology building, and UH anticipates it "will become one of the outstanding research and educational centers at the UH and a model for UH/private-sector research collaborations," Neubauer said.
Laws said other potential funding sources for the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center have been identified, and partnerships will be explored with other organizations with mutual research interests, such as the Oceanic Institute.
"While marine biotechnology is of great interest to NSF, it is not the only university/ private-sector collaboration we want to see," he said.
The center, he said, is a prototype to identify obstacles involved with such centers -- "and there are obstacles."
One is that the traditional university reward system of tenure and promotions does not encourage faculty to interact with the private sector, and this must be changed, he said.
Kinoshita said meetings are under way with member industries and others to develop funding proposals, and the faculty has been very supportive.
"I can't think of a single faculty member who didn't have constructive things to offer post-NSF announcement."
Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology
