Marshall University has reached the $15 million West Virginia Research Trust Fund fundraising goal.
A recent donation of $150,000 from Allied Realty Company was the final private donation needed to reach the university’s goal.
The donation from Allied will go to support the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (MIIR) and the university’s College of Fine Arts.
The $100,000 portion of the donation designated for research at MIIR, in addition to other year-end gifts and pledges, is expected to be matched by the state’s trust fund and will allow Marshall to draw down the last of the money distributed to it in the fund for a total benefit of $30 million to the university.
The trust fund, which is also referred to as the “Bucks for Brains” program, was created by the West Virginia Legislature back in 2008 for both Marshall University and West Virginia University. Marshall’s goal is $15 million while WVU has to meet a $35 million goal.
For the past five years, the schools have been able to use the fund to double private gifts that support research initiatives linked to economic development, health care and job growth.
Thanks to the program, Marshall has been able to create 16 new research endowments and increase the university’s overall endowment by more than 15 percent.
At Marshall, the West Virginia Research Trust Fund is supporting research in disciplines as diverse as biotechnology, aging and dementia, engineering, chemistry, biology and transportation just to name a few.
Since 2008, Allied has donated a total of $450,000 for research at Marshall which, with the match from the fund, would total $900,000.