BP announces first $25M for research

The Northern Gulf Institute at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., will receive $10 million to study the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. NGI is one of three groups getting a total of $25 million in initial funding from BP. The company three weeks ago pledged $500 million for a 10-year program called the Gulf Coast Research Initiative in the wake of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent massive oil spill. On Tuesday it announced the first installment. NGI, a consortium led by Mississippi State University, includes the University of Southern Mississippi, Louisiana State University, Florida State University and Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Mobile, Ala. Another $10 million is going to the University of South Florida-led Florida Institute of Oceanography, a consortium of 20 institutions with marine science interests, including 11 state universities. The remaining $5 million is going to Louisiana State University, which has been promised $10 million over 10 years. In a related matter, the director of the National Institutes of Health told a House committee Tuesday that the institutes will spend $10 million on research on the potential health impacts of the spill. (Source: Multiple, including New York Times, OilVoice, ENewsParkForest, 06/15/10)