Opportunities for External Funding.

  Our main strategic objective is to make Drexel University the leading organization in a large-scale multi-university national initiative on Plasma Bio-Medicine. We plan to exploit the opportunities offered by NSF ERC, MURI, DARPA centers, as well as commercialization opportunities for plasma-medical and plasma-biological technologies developed at Drexel University. Preliminary discussions with the NSF ERC division indicate that there is a good chance for creation of such a center involving the participation of a strong multi-university team.

We have already made first steps in coordinating efforts for creation of NSF ERC with major plasma centers in the US (including University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, University of California at Berkley, Princeton University and University of Iowa) as well as with our neighboring institution The University of Pennsylvania. Further effective development of this program requires more formalized framework of Drexel Major Research Initiative.

Drexel University faculty members work as PI-s and co-PIs in numerous research projects sponsored by NSF, DOD, DOE, NASA, USDA, Department of Air Force, DARPA, Florida Institute of Phosphate Research, CiMeRC, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, companies such as Kodak, Chevron-Texaco, Air Products, Applied Materials and many others. Our annual external funding specifically focused on plasma research is exceeding $2 million, and the gradient is positive. This gives us hope to obtain even more significant external funding required for the development of the Major Research Initiative “Plasma Bio-Medicine”