Several research centers that comprise part of UT’s 21st Century Research Initiative, are at no risk of financial troubles despite state budget problems, a UT administrator said.

The nine research centers are all part of an effort to transform UT into a top-25 research university.

The state budget crisis is a concern, but other sources of funding outside UT will make up for any gaps in state funding, according to T. Dwayne McCay, vice president for Research and Information Technology.

McCay said the primary source of external funding is federal research grants. The centers are also funded through private corporations.

“The potential for external funding is very high,” McCay said.

He said the nine centers will be reviewed informally four times a year, and there will be formal two-year reviews as well.

Acting President Emerson “Eli” Fly is more concerned about the state budget’s effect on the centers, but remains hopeful.

According to Fly, the centers were supposed to receive an additional $7 million to $8 million from the state in 2001, but that may not happen now. He said he thinks the centers will do fine without the extra state funds this year, because the return on UT

‘s investment has been better than 4-1.

However, this year’s good fortune does not guarantee equal success next year.

“If we don’t get state money next year, we will have some problems,” Fly said.

Five of the centers are on the Knoxville campus and four are located at the UT-Memphis campus. The centers in Knoxville include the Food Safety Center of Excellence, Center for Information Technology Research, Center for Environmental Biotechnology, Cente

r of Excellence in Structural Biology and the Tennessee Advanced Materials Laboratory.

The Center for Information Technology Research is one of the newer centers created for the Research Initiative. Jack Dongarra, director of CITR, facilitated the creation and approval of the center through his experience with the Innovative Computing Labor

atory. That program, which has an 11-year history, has helped the newly created CITR, Dongarra said.

CITR is expected to receive $7 million in state funding through UT over the next five years.

But Dongarra said the state money is not guaranteed.

“There is an ongoing process to validate the good the center is doing,” Dongarra said, adding that the researchers at his center will try to attract federal funding with their projects. A federal grant of $1.6 million has already been awarded, with anothe

r $3.8 million grant pending.

In addition to securing federal funds, the researchers will also try to create prototypes with research that may be used to start companies. Items such as software can then be marketed. Royalties from these products would presumably go back into the cente

r, Dongarra said.

Private corporations such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and IBM have contributed funding to the Innovative Computing Laboratory, which helps the center, Dongarra said.

“I consider the Innovative Computing Laboratory to be part of the center,” he said.

He added that a goal of the center is to be self-sufficient after five years, without any additional state funding.

Not all of the centers are new.

The Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) has existed for 15 years. Gary Sayler, director of CEB, said the center has benefited from its recent association with the Research Initiative.

“Our center submitted a proposal and went through the same competitive process that all the other center proposals went through,” Sayler said. “Under the new funding initiative, we are moving in some dynamic new directions that would have been very diffic

ult to purse otherwise.”

He said CEB is also slated to receive $7 million in state funds from UT over the five-year program, and is receiving about $1 million a year in research money from the federal government and private corporations, like Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble and Lo

ckheed-Martin, which have alreadyhelpedthe center with funding and supplies.

According to Sayler, money for the centers has also been secured through administrative cost savings at UT.

CEB is well on its way to expanding their reach and influence, Sayler said.

Researchers at CEB have already started two small biotechnology companies, he said. He added that those at the center expect new bioelectronic and biocomputing companies to be formed as well.

But the hopes for recognition do not stop there.

“We really hope that our research induces larger companies to expand or invest in the East Tennessee area,” he said.

Sayler said he is confident that his center has a promising future.

“Our center is already 15 years old,” he said. “We will be around long after the five-year program.”