- Introduced -

SB 1089 - This act creates a Life Sciences Research Program within the Department of Health. A nine member Life Sciences Research Board shall distribute grants to increase the capacity and infrastructure for, and improve the quantity and quality of, life science research in the state. The Board may make provisions for peer review panels to research and review grant proposals.

Grant recipients shall have the duty to ensure timely disclosure of their research findings to the scientific community, and to promote public availability of their inventions and other intellectual property developed in the performance of research funded by a grant award. Institutions or organizations receiving grant awards shall retain intellectual property rights, but the Life Sciences Board is authorized to adopt reasonable regulations to insure that intellectual property rights are utilized in the public interest.

The act prohibits grant moneys from being used for human cloning, abortion services, other than to save the life of the mother, or destructive human research, including the taking of organs of a living child, when the intended result is to cause serious harm to the child. "Child" is defined as a human at any stage of biological development of an unborn child from conception onward. The research projects include research and development into product safety and preventative care technologies.

This act is similar to SB 226 (2001).

JIM ERTLE