The Center for Advanced Engineering and Research hopes to chase down federal stimulus money with a loan from the Region 2000 Local Government Council.
On Thursday the Local Government Council board of directors agreed to loan CAER $30,000 to hire someone to help prepare grant proposals that are due in the coming months.
Bob Bailey, executive director of CAER, asked for a grant from the council so that CAER doesn’t miss important research opportunities.
Normally he would spend a significant amount of his time pursuing grants for research opportunities. However, he now is occupied with the development of a CAER facility in Bedford County.
Last year the Virginia Tobacco Commission awarded CAER $7.5 million for a building. Bailey wants the facility to be built as soon as possible in hopes of qualifying for more Tobacco Commission money after it is finished.
While he is busy with the building project, the organization needs to continue to get research projects that have money attached. “I can’t go build a building and then go build a research portfolio,” Bailey said.
Bryan David, a Region 2000 official on the Local Government Council board, said CAER needs a pipeline of projects, and the pipeline can’t run dry.
Bailey is applying for a Tobacco Commission grant of $750,000 to pay for CAER’s attempts to fill that pipeline for about three years. However, that money would become available this fall if at all. Bailey said that there are several research projects and grants for which CAER should apply before then.
Some of the projects are paid for by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, while others come from the National Science Foundation and other sources. “Between the stimulus, the (Tobacco) Commission and a couple of other opportunities, I have about five deadlines between now and August,” Bailey said. CAER would miss those deadlines without a person to seek out and apply for grants, he said.
Bailey asked for a $30,000 grant from the Local Government Council. Kimball Payne, Lynchburg’s city manager and a member of the council’s board, said he would prefer to give CAER a loan instead. The council’s board of directors agreed unanimously to loan CAER $30,000 without interest and without a specific due date.
The money will come from the council’s reserve fund.
The Local Government Council’s money comes from membership dues paid by localities in the Lynchburg region, an allocation from the Virginia General Assembly and some contract fees.
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