{"id":410,"date":"2009-10-30T12:07:01","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T16:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/murc\/?page_id=410"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:32:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:32:50","slug":"b4b","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/murc\/b4b\/","title":{"rendered":"“Bucks for Brains” West Virginia Research Trust Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The West Virginia Research Trust Fund,\u00a0also known as the \u201cBucks for Brains\u201d program, was created by the West Virginia Legislature in 2008 to stimulate both world-class research at the state\u2019s leading research universities and<\/em> the related benefits of high-tech industries.<\/p>\n

Over the past five years, Marshall University has been able to tap into the trust fund to double private gifts that support targeted research initiatives linked to economic development, health care and job growth. Gifts were matched dollar-for-dollar by the state.<\/p>\n

Since its inception, the trust fund\u00a0has had a dramatic effect at Marshall University. To date, $15 million in private gifts\u00a0from 170 donors<\/a> has\u00a0been combined with proceeds from the trust fund to create 16 new research endowments at Marshall\u2014for a total benefit to the university of $30 million!<\/p>\n

So far, these endowments have increased Marshall\u2019s overall endowment by more than 15 percent, and the funds will continue to support critical, productive and economically beneficial research long into the future. The program also has helped catalyze public and private support for a number of new research facilities at Marshall, including an applied engineering complex, translational genomics research institute, sports medicine translational research center, and schools of pharmacy\u00a0and physical therapy.<\/p>\n[social_share\/]\n

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What types of research does it support at Marshall?<\/h2>\n

At the\u00a0Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research<\/a>,\u00a0scientists funded through the endowment’s proceeds are conducting vital research to develop tissue repair techniques that could someday improve the lives of people everywhere who suffer from\u00a0heart disease, burns and wounds, sports injuries\u00a0and other conditions. And Marshall researchers at the\u00a0Nick J. Rahall II Appalachian Transportation Institute<\/a>\u00a0are developing systems and processes to make our highways and railways safer.<\/p>\n

The trust fund is also\u00a0supporting research in obstetrics\/gynecology, occupational and environmental health, and aging and dementia at the\u00a0Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine<\/a>; mechanical engineering, risk management and bioengineering in the\u00a0College of Engineering and Computer Sciences<\/a>; and aquatic research and\u00a0student summer chemistry research in the\u00a0College of Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, the trust fund will support new faculty and scientists in the university\u2019s planned sports medicine translational research center.<\/p>\n

The 16 endowments funded through the trust fund include the following:<\/p>\n