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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Larranaga

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/2007

HB 376

SHORT TITLE Expand UNM Biomedical Engineering

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$682.5

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates SB 117.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

University of New Mexico (UNM)

Economic Development Department (EDD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 376 appropriates $682,500 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of UNM

for expenditure in FY 2008 to expand the Biomedical Engineering Program.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $682,500 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY2008 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The University of New Mexico Center for Biomedical Engineering researches biomaterials,

nanobiotechnology, bioanalytical microsystems and bioenergy technologies.

House Bill 376 – Page

2

A UNM analysis indicates this request seeks funding for a biomedical engineering program di-

rector and four additional faculty slots, and equipment for education and research. This faculty

will:

•

Create BME concentrations in existing School of Engineering undergraduate curricula

•

Develop a MS/PhD level graduate program in BME

•

Develop a BME undergraduate (BS) degree

The program will support new faculty members that will:

•

Coordinate research, development and education in biomedical engineering.

•

Represent a critical mass of researchers and research activity to support planned educa-

tional programs.

•

Seed the funding of new educational programs in biomedical engineering including:

o

A new undergraduate certificate program that coordinates course offerings across en-

gineering departments.

o

A new interdisciplinary graduate program in biomedical engineering to augment and

parallel the current Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program. The first two years of the

program will be devoted to planning and implementing this program. Faculty mem-

bers that serve the certificate program will also serve the graduate program.

o

Coordinated articulation programs focused on biomedical engineering with feeder

schools. The initial program will be developed with NMHU, and expected to expand to

include other schools throughout the State.

Study, identify and justify the need for an undergraduate BME program, based on the response to

the certificate programs, to be introduced five years from now.

These funds would augment funding received by UNM through the Instruction and General

(I&G) funding formula for operation of the existing Biomedical Engineering Program.

This proposal was submitted to the HED by UNM, but was not included in the Department’s

funding recommendation for FY08. UNM's request consists of two line items: a recurring

amount of $895,800 and a non-recurring amount of $3,500,000.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB 376 is a duplicate of SB 117.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The UNM Center for Biomedical Engineering has received a $2.5 million grant from the Na-

tional Science Foundation over the next five years (2006 through 2011) to fund a research and

educational partnership with Harvard University< Albuquerque Public Schools and the South-

western Indian Polytechnic Institute. The project will focus on a multidisciplinary area of materi-

als technology; biomaterials, which are synthetic and natural, solid and sometimes liquid, and

used in medical devices or in contact with biological systems (UNM Press Release, July 26,

2006).

BM/nt