FORT SMITH, Ark. — Over 150 institutions in the state of Arkansas applied for $48 million in grant money from the Arkansas Department of Commerce as a part of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' effort to improve workforce development. But only 19 groups were awarded, and two of them are in Fort Smith.
The University of Arkansas Fort Smith (UAFS) received $4 million while the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) received $3 million.
"The grant process was fairly simple, straightforward. We submitted a proposal for advanced manufacturing for our campus," UAFS Chancellor Terisa Riley said.
With the grant, the school plans on buying equipment needed to start a new manufacturing program.
"The university plans to buy equipment that we need for advanced manufacturing and to begin a brand-new advanced manufacturing engineering program on our campus, which will begin in fall of 2025," Riley said.
The university believes the program will help students get a higher quality education in advanced manufacturing.
"I think that it positively impacts the university, because it really meets the needs of our industry partners within the River Valley and western Arkansas. We look forward to bringing in a tremendous number of students into the program and certainly preparing them for the jobs available in our industry is our mission," Riley explained.
ACHE's Vice President of Research Jeffrey Osborn said that the grant is going to pay off when educating the young people of Arkansas.
"The grant is designed to provide educational training for young people in the state of Arkansas, and for those young people to get trained in higher technology positions that will lead them into better jobs and attract better jobs into the state of Arkansas," Osborn said.
This will bring a need to the state that hasn't been met in years passed.
"The problem we have is it's very difficult to find technicians and train technical staff to be able to do those kinds of technical positions. We want to train Arkansans to be able to conduct that work right here at home at the Arkansas Colleges of Health and Education," Osborn said.
First, ACHE needs the equipment to kickstart the program.
"This grant will fund very high-level state of the art equipment that allows us to do preclinical imaging. Preclinical imaging is that imaging that takes place before we move on to patients and to live humans," Osborn said.
The research center will be unveiling their new lab that they plan on using soon.
“The Research Institute, Health and Wellness Center, it's huge because on Monday, November 18, we will be holding a ribbon cutting to open this facility that you're looking at right here," Osborn said. "That ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at 10:10 a.m., we would invite anyone who wants to come to join in this celebration. It's the celebration for not only this research space, but for the biomedical Resource Center, which also makes up this 30,000 square foot addition to the Research Institute Health and Wellness Center.”
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