By KRWG News
Texas – Texas is awarding $61 million for cancer research projects in the first round of an unprecedented $3 billion in grants the state expects to hand out over the next decade.
State officials in Austin on Wednesday announced that 66 cancer research projects will be the first to receive funding. It comes three years after voters approved creating the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
The agency has received nearly 900 proposals since calling for grant applications last fall. The chosen projects will study cancers including brain, blood, cervical and lung.
The $3 billion in expected funding over the next 10 years makes Texas the gatekeeper of the second largest amount of cancer research money in the country, behind only the National Cancer Institute.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.