Incubators and R&D

Mars exploration is in the news, and Idaho State University is emerging as a national leader in studying the Red Planet, according to a press release.

…what we can do in Montana is pretty amazing

MSU last year spent a record $80 million from research grants and contracts.

Officials in Washington, D.C., like the system so much they want the entire country mapped and ready in five years. This will require a huge effort

Even outside DARPA, the Defense Department is a big source of funding known as Small Business Innovation Research grants.

Fishing the prairies In four years of sampling prairie streams in Montana, ecology research professor Bob Bramblett figures he’s captured 63,000 fish. Most–88 percent–are native species. The Iowa darter, the shorthead redhorse and the stonecat…

Last year, legislators approved a long-term plan to spend more than $400 million on universities to enhance research and attract and keep top new people.

"By working actively with this technology and its issues, Montana could become a leader in plant-based biopharmaceutical research and production," Peterson said. An important aspect of risk assessment will be better communication with the public.

"If people don’t understand the process, they’re not going to trust the decisions," says Peterson.

MSU is now working on the project for which it expects to receive $1 to $3 million over 10 years, Martens said. The project will offer graduate students, undergraduate students and high school students an opportunity for hands-on research. The purpose of the Solar Dynamics Observatory is to better understand how the sun influences the Earth and space near the Earth.

When John Belz, an assistant physics professor, came to Missoula in 2002, he brought with him an international project to study subatomic particles.