Regents Hold February Board Meeting, Approve UA Technology and Research Initiative Fund (TRIF) Three-Year Budget

ABOR held their February board meeting last week, which largely focused on Arizona State University, including President Crow providing a State of the Enterprise update to the board. Regents also approved the hiring of Karen Pugliesi as new Executive Vice president and University Provost for Northern Arizona University and discussed key bills moving through the legislature.

The primary item for the University of Arizona was approval of the university’s three-year TRIF budget, including new dedicated funds for specific ABOR opportunity initiatives. Since 2001, Arizonans have invested $1.3 billion in university research through TRIF. At the UA, these dollars have led to breakthrough discoveries including non-opioid pain solutions, amazing capabilities that catalyzed UA’s COVID-19 response, PCR COVID-19 tests mad available to all counties and tribal nations in the state, and the nation’s first COVID-19 antibody test, which was made available free to all Arizonans.

Included in the UA’s opportunity initiatives will be investments in the Institute for the Future of Data and Computing designed to develop the secure use of data at scale, especially for human medical and clinical research data. The dollars will also be invested in supporting aging citizens and their families through aligning Arizona’s geriatric workforce needs with training opportunities and providing accessible and affordable educational opportunities for diverse students to join the healthcare workforce