Partnership with Government Agency leads to $50,000 Award from the Arizona Water Institute

UA SBRP Investigator, Jon Chorover from the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, has been awarded $50,000 from the Arizona Water Institute (AWI) to support collaboration with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) State Laboratory in Phoenix. The project entitled “Collaborative Approach to Analyzing Emergent Contaminants in Arizona Water” will help reduce the cost of important laboratory testing capabilities for all three Arizona universities and will help provide new testing protocols.

AWI received 70 proposals for collaborative projects, funding only 11 projects. Key criteria in the review process included evidence of stakeholder support, technical/scientific/intellectual merit, collaboration across Arizona universities and with specific stakeholder partners, and strategic importance to AWI. Other criteria included commercialization opportunities, availability of matching funds, interdisciplinary approaches, innovation and opportunities for technology transfer.

Earlier this year, UA SBRP Research Translation and Administrative Core personnel met with ADHS in Phoenix to establish a foundation for collaborative research and projects between UA SBRP and ADHS.  Capitalizing on this established ground-work, Dr. Chorover created a team consisting of ADHS laboratory management and researchers from the three Arizona public Universities (UA, Northern Arizona University, and Arizona State University) which will help create and sustain a centralized state-of-the-art water quality laboratory for the State of Arizona.