UofL receives $10 million to add more world-class researchers

The University of Louisville will use millions in new funding to add endowed faculty positions to advance groundbreaking research in cybersecurity, energy, health and more.   The new positions are backed by a $10 million state investment in the Research Challenge Trust Fund, also known as Bucks-for-Brains. The program supports research at Kentucky universities by matching state dollars with private donations, effectively doubling the total funding.   “Since its inception, the Bucks-for-Brains program has been invaluable in supporting the university’s efforts to recruit and retain exceptional talent and, in turn, accelerate economic development,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel. “With this new funding, combined with private donations, we hope to expand this effort, drawing even more world-class faculty to UofL and to Kentucky.”   UofL has launched a fundraising campaign to match the state investment. More information is available here. Once the match funding is raised, UofL will recruit top talent in the following areas:

• Inflammation and Microbiome
• Bioinformatics 
• Medical informatics
• Immunogenomics 
• Pandemic preparedness 
• Nutrition and health
• Improved health outcomes
• Cybersecurity 
• Energy storage 
• Nano-enabled medicine and healthcare

Prior to this new investment, UofL had received $116.7 million in Bucks for Brains funding since 1998, which more than doubled with private donations. That funding has supported the creation of more than 160 endowed chair, professor and fellow positions with a focus on groundbreaking and impactful research.   “These researchers’ important work, supported by the Bucks for Brains program, improves our world in a very real way,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “Their work creates new products, companies, a trained workforce and jobs. Their work shows that the university, and its home state, take a leadership role in bringing those big ideas to life.”   Never has that impact been more evident, he said, than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when UofL researchers and innovators worked to combat health, societal and economic impacts here and around the world.   Over the past two fiscal years, UofL’s Bucks-for-Brains endowed researchers developed COVID-19 fighting nasal sprays, worked to support minority-owned manufacturers and took university-born startups through successful IPOs. In the 2021 fiscal year alone, these researchers’ work created 946 jobs and contributed $169 million to the Kentucky economy.