WVU and Marshall University presidents and education leaders join
Gov. Manchin in signing "Bucks for Brains" bill (Hur Herald Photo)
The "Bucks for Brains" bill, one of the most talked about measures before the legislature, was signed Thursday by Gov. Joe Manchin.
West Virginia will now put $50 million into a trust fund, $35 million at WVU and $15 at Marshall for the program.
The schools much match the money with private donations before it can be used for research and economic development.
Marshall President Stephen Kopp says the money will fund what's called research-based economic development.
"You take applied research in the laboratory, breakthroughs lead to discoveries that can be patented, those patentable discoveries are then licensed to new business and then the new business becomes part of the private sector that hires people," said Kopp.
The governor said the State of Kentucky currently has a $700 million program that West Virginia would like to one day duplicate.
"Those investments are now paying dividends," MU President Kopp said. "There's significant new job creation in the high-pay job sector."
Marshall University predicts 1,100 new jobs in the first decade and more than 3,400 new jobs in the second decade.
West Virginia University president Mike Garrison brought several research professors from his university to the bill signing.
"They already do entrepreneurial research in the area of cancer care and energy research," he said. "Those are the things we are looking to do that flips out from the academic side into progress on the economic side."
"It will have a huge impact on what we do as a university," Garrison said.
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