For the second year in a row LSU’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training will receive $20 million from the federal government.
The money – part of a $145 million commitment to the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium – came from legislation recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, said Jim Fernandez, LSU vice provost and executive director of the NCSRT.
LSU is one of five organizations that make up the NDPC. Texas A&M, New Mexico Tech, the Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site and the Center for Domestic Preparedness will split the $145 million with LSU.
Fernandez said the money is vital to continue the center’s services.
“Without that funding we do not have a National Center for Biomedical Research,” Fernandez said.
The NCSRT was established earlier this year to coordinate efforts in security research and training through the LSU’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, the Law Enforcement Training Program, Law Enforcement Online, the Fire and Emergency Training Institute, and the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training.
Fernandez said the NCBRT is a set of training programs that prepare individuals responsible for the planning and response to terrorist events involving weapons of mass destruction.
The center teaches nine courses in law enforcement, and bioterriorism and public health.
“The money will be used to continue putting on the courses that we do through out the country,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez said law enforcement agencies and other security personnel contact LSU with the courses that they want their employees to take. From there Fernandez coordinates the instructors and a location that the courses will be taught.
LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert said he was pleased with the increase in federal funding.
“The University is extremely pleased to receive a significant increase in federal funds supporting the mission of the NCSRT,” Emmert said in a University press release. “This terrific news signals the importance of the work done within the center to our country and is another demonstration of LSU’s central role in conducting research of national importance.”
Fernandez said prior to the five units being placed directly under the NCSRT they all were regulated under five different departments.