Kentucky Senate passes a top-priority bill to stimulate cutting-edge research at public universities

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A top-priority bill intended to turn researchers at Kentucky’s public universities into teammates collaborating on cutting-edge research won overwhelming approval in the state Senate on Wednesday.

The measure, sponsored by Republican Senate President Robert Stivers, won Senate passage on a 36-0 vote to advance to the House. Details about start-up funding for the initiative will come into focus in coming weeks. The Senate is working on its version of the next two-year state budget, but the final version will be hashed out by Senate and House negotiators. Stivers will be a key participant in those talks.

The legislation is meant to stimulate research capable of attracting lucrative federal grants and other support while lifting Kentucky’s research profile. Projects could focus on achieving medical breakthroughs and building on schools’ existing strengths in other types of research as well.

The goal is to spur research breakthroughs with lasting impacts on improving lives, Stivers said.

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“That’s the hope of this bill, that we will know we made a difference,” the Senate’s top leader said. “A difference in the trajectory of this state, in the lives of people here in this state and well beyond the geographic confines of the state of Kentucky.”

Sen. Gerald Neal, the Senate’s top-ranking Democrat, hailed the bill as “the most visionary