Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter spoke to University of Idaho students, faculty and state representatives to promote research in Idaho as part of the $5 million Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission (IGEM).
The plan was discussed Monday in the second-floor atrium of the College of Natural Resources building and a tour of UI fishery and potato labs followed.
IGEM allocates $2 million to be split between UI, Boise State University and Idaho State University as well as $2 million to the Center for Advanced Energy Studies and the Idaho Department of Commerce.
“Through IGEM, the University of Idaho will continue to lead the way in developing the ideas and the leaders needed to grow our economy,” President M. Duane Nellis said.
Otter related the potential of IGEM to other ongoing UI scientific projects.
Comparisons include the potato virus Y project, led by UI associate professor of plant virology Alexander Karasev, and UI’s trout cold-water disease project, led by Ken Cain, UI associate professor of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and associate director of the Aquaculture Research Institute.
“More than 75 percent of common trout comes from the state of Idaho,” said Jack McIver, UI vice president for research and educational development.
A cold-water disease that infected steelhead, rainbow trout and salmon cost Idaho fisheries around $10 million in 2010.
That amount may be saved annually by Cain’s breakthrough vaccine.
“One bottle can save 100,000 fish,” Cain said.
Cain said his project made it to this point with the help of a number of grants and contracts during the last 10 years from agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Aquaculture. He said $34,000 came from the Idaho State Board of Education from an initial fund like IGEM.
“There are a lot of different projects … at the university level that would benefit from (IGEM),” Cain said after the news conference.
Otter said the research and success of IGEM is going to be one of confidence and cannot be measured in dollars or cents.
“This value is going to serve us long, long into the future because it’s going to give us a pedigree that the rest of the world in many cases can look at and say, ‘They can get the job done in Idaho,'” Otter said.
The IGEM bill has not yet been enacted, but Otter said he doesn’t expect push back.