July 12, 2024
High-tech for the win
Georgia’s investment in university labs creates a major competitive advantage
State-of-the-art technology in Georgia’s university labs does more than speed discovery and invention. It also makes the state more competitive in landing multi-million research grants.
Since its founding in 1990, GRA has strategically invested in research instruments and core facilities. This investment has helped to:
- Recruit top scientists to Georgia universities. Adding a key piece of equipment can immediately strengthen a researcher’s program and become a deciding factor for a major recruit.
- Bolster applications for grants and contracts. Facilities and tools are evidence of capacity and capability. They assure federal and private funders that the right infrastructure is in place for a proposed project.
- Elevate Georgia’s place in university R&D. By attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in new research grants, Georgia has climbed from no. 12 to no. 8 in the U.S.
GRA’s investment of state dollars to enhance university labs totals nearly $300 million across three decades. Each investment in a facility or technology has been carefully considered for its potential return to the state.
One example is a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer at the University of Georgia:
- In 1996, GRA applied a $5.5 million State of Georgia investment to help UGA acquire a 900-megahertz spectrometer. The technology catapulted the capabilities of UGA’s Center for Complex Carbohydrate Research (known as CCRC).
- Three years later, GRA helped UGA recruit Jim Prestegard as a GRA Eminent Scholar. Prestegard added deep NMR expertise to UGA — and CCRC built a worldwide reputation for groundbreaking research.
- Since 2015, GRA Eminent Scholar Art Edison has led the NMR facility, and he was instrumental in landing a $40M NSF grant to acquire a new NMR spectrometer. With the installation of the device in June 2024, UGA became only the second university in the U.S. to have a 1.1 GHz spectrometer.
GRA’s investment in lab infrastructure carries another tremendous advantage: Equipment sharing.
In 2019, GRA forged a historic agreement among its eight universities to facilitate the sharing of equipment and access to core facilities. No other state in the U.S. had such an arrangement at the time. More on the GRA Core Exchange >
The sharing of high-tech tools and facilities makes the state of Georgia’s investment in labs even smarter. Every piece of equipment is put to work — and every dollar is put to maximum use.
