The University of South Florida will receive $14.05 million in federal funds from a new spending package that will back a number of projects throughout the university system, according to a release.
It’s enough to back seven different projects across all three USF campuses and USF Health — a mix of initiatives focused on student success, military veterans and research that include constructing new facilities, expanding the university’s cybersecurity infrastructure and backing research into advanced hurricane resiliency tools.
The money comes from the Federal Community Project Funding process — a spending package that allows members of Congress to request federal funding for local projects that “benefit the region, state and nation,” according to a release.
The breakdown of the funds includes:
- $3 million will help remodel USF’s Veterans, Military Families and First Responders Complex — an aging facility on the St. Petersburg campus where student veterans and military-connected students receive academic support services, career counseling and workforce training. The funds will also help develop new facilities for veterans and first responders on USF’s Tampa campus, the release says.
- $2 million for the USF’s new Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing to buy equipment that will establish a “high-tech, state-of-the-art AI/Cyber makerspace,” the release says, as well as $1.3 million for its Security Operations Center and training site and $1.25 million for its cybersecurity certificate training program.
- About $3 million is allocated for USF’s new Center for Entrepreneurship on the Sarasota-Manatee campus — a collaborative space where students, entrepreneurs and small business professionals can use equipment and resources too expensive for most small businesses to purchase themselves, the release says.
- About $2 million will help establish a Molecular Profiling Center for brain and biomedical research.
- Some $1.5 million is earmarked for new oceanographic instrumentation and upgraded sensors that help forecast hurricane, storm surges, red tide events and other natural hazards.
Tampa Bay area elected officials who secured funding for the projects include Anna Paulina Luna, R-St. Petersburg; Dan Webster, R-Leesburg; Greg Steube, R-Sarasota; Gus Bilirakis, R-New Port Richey; Kathy Castor, D-Tampa; Laurel Lee, R-Tampa; and Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key.
