Texas is set to establish a Nobel Prize winner-seeking fund at the expense of its investment fund.

Texas is set to abolish its state-backed its $485m Emerging Technology Fund aimed at supporting commercialisation of university research.

Republican governor Greg Abbott seized on a number of bankruptcies stemming from Texas’ spin-outs and a lack of transparency with the fund to attack the fund, started by his predecessor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry in 2005.

In its place, Abbott plans to use the remaining unspent $40m of the Emerging Technology Fund to build the University Research Fund, a pot of money which will provide matching grants alongside Texan institutions to attract Nobel Prize winners and other top academic talent to the region.

 

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