Congress awards Texas State University over $21 million in federal funding

Congress recently awarded Texas State University more than $21 million.

The university receives the allocation through H.R. 2471, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022,” which will provide full-year funding for projects and activities of the federal government and authorizations and extensions on a variety of government-sponsored projects and activities through Sept. 30, Texas State said.

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center and Texas State’s STEM-for-All Partnership (RRSAP) and Research Initiative are among the programs and activities that will receive funding from the “Consol-idated Appropriations Act 2022.”

Melinda Villagran, Director of the Community Health and Economic Resilience Research Center, received $2 million to improve mental health training and technology through Texas State’s Mental Health Surveillance Collaborative. Funding was facilitated by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

“The pandemic has left more and more of our neighbors suffering from depression, anxiety and more severe problems that may lead to severe harm,” Doggett said. “During the pandemic, we have benefited from our local COVID dashboards, which mapped out our community to show where new infections were occurring.”

Doggett added that funding will enable mental health experts and data scientists to develop a mapping tool to help intervene and prevent mental health crises.

“A mental health map of Central Texas should be a useful tool for public health planners, school counselors and veterans’ assistance groups,” Doggett said. “It can help to match needs of neighbors from certain areas, age groups, and other factors with available resources for help in times of crisis or challenge.”

The Meadows Center will receive $2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the Climate Change Impact on Water Initiative. Doggett also facilitated this grant.

Texas State said the Meadows Center’s project will analyze climate factors, including dramatic rises in extreme weather events and drought projections. The project aims to help Texas assess how the state’s climate projections can better serve water stakeholder needs, the university said.

“The cutting-edge research will provide actionable climate impact information in order to prompt policy and decision makers,” Texas State said in a news release. “The project will develop models of climate change aimed at analyzing the impact on surface water and groundwater at the local level. This will enable The Meadows Center to provide a policy roadmap for individual stakeholders, communities and public officials to prepare Texas for challenges ahead related to water resources, environment and the economy.”

The ALERRT Center at Texas State received $11 million via the Protecting Our Lives through Initiating COPS Expansion (POLICE) Act. U.S. Rep. John Carter sponsored the act.

Texas State said the grant supports ALERRT’s Integrated Response Training Program, which gives first responders across the country multi-disciplinary, scenario-based training in an effort to improve rapid response to active shooter events.

“A significant portion of the funding will go toward training first responders in how to be instructors, so they may return to their communities and train others in the Integrated Response Training Program,” the university said. “ALERRT is also expanding and developing more e-learning capabilities.”

Texas State’s Round Rock Campus received $1 million for the STEM-for-All Partnership (RR-SAP) and Research Initiative. RRSAP is overseen by Department of Curriculum and Instruction Leslie Huling. Rep. Carter facilitated the grant.

The university said RR-SAP is a public/private initiative that will combine a workforce research initiative with STEM engagement and educator professional development opportunities for learners of all ages in Texas’ 31st Congressional District. Additionally, research data will be collected and analyzed from area employers and education providers regarding current and future workforce needs to identify voids and to promote collaborative planning to better meet local needs.

Summer engineering camps for elementary students, STEM internship programs for secondary students and monthly STEM nights at area schools will be included in the STEM engagement and educator professional development collaborative. Summer engineering institutes for pre-service teachers will also be included in the collaborative alongside Saturday teacher professional development sessions for K-12 teachers, a speaker series for the community and STEM exhibits and interactive activities at area community events, Texas State said.

Department of Biology professor Weston Nowlin was awarded $5.6 million for the multiyear, multi-investigator collaborative project to study the populations of native and invasive species in Texas waterways.

“The ongoing research project studies how varying river conditions, such as flooding and drought, combine with landscape-level factors, such as climate and land use patterns, to affect the distribution and abundance of organisms within and across river drainages in the state,” Texas State said. “The research will examine the response from a broad ecological range of species, including bacteria, fish, freshwater mussels and invertebrates.”

ncastillo

@sanmarcosrecord.com