12:30 p.m., March 16, 2009----The University of Delaware received funding for seven projects -- including $1.4 million for a wind turbine to provide power at the College of Marine and Earth Studies' Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes -- in the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill that was signed into law March 11 by President Barack Obama.

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The wind turbine infrastructure funding would provide an on-shore wind turbine at the campus in Lewes to facilitate research, development and policy aimed at marine wind technology development.

The project also would inform decisions about utility scale power production from wind in the offshore environment.

In addition to funding for the wind turbine infrastructure, UD's College of Marine and Earth Studies received $750,000 for a real-time satellite receiving station needed to access data for University researchers looking at regional issues such as watersheds, shoreline erosion and land-sea interface.

UD also received $475,000 for the fuel cell hybrid bus program in the College of Engineering, with fuel cell technology offering the potential to reduce reliance on foreign oil supplies and to decrease the effects of harmful emissions on our environment.

The project represents an effort to develop, build, and deploy a fuel-cell-powered hybrid transit vehicle to be used within the state of Delaware.

The vehicles developed in this project will be fully tested in real-life situations, and the results will be presented to transit agencies throughout the U.S. and other interested countries.

The University of Delaware transit system and the Delaware Transit Corporation are fully cooperating on this project and will be important partners throughout the course of this effort.

UD's Delaware Biotechnology Institute received $190,000, including equipment. The funding will be used to strengthen Delaware's biomedical research capabilities by building on existing programs in cancer research and bioinformatics, supporting the necessary research infrastructure, and beginning new infrastructure in cardiovascular and neuroscience research.

The University's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources received $94,000 in federal funds for avian influenza preparedness. The funding will be used to upgrade the Delmarva Peninsula's avian flu diagnostic and biocontainment facilities and to combine Delaware and Maryland's laboratory information management systems. The goal of this program is to prevent an outbreak of this deadly disease.

The Center for Critical Zone Research-Institute for Soil and Environmental Quality received $70,000 to support programs and acquire equipment essential to improving environmental health and economic growth by research into critical soil and environmental problems.

Also, UD's Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies received $65,000 to be used to supplement the Delaware School Survey Project to provide special analysis of juvenile substance use, violence, and delinquency.

Article by Neil Thomas