Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 3526 amends the Education Code to establish the research development fund as a fund outside the state treasury in the custody of and administered by the comptroller to promote increased research capacity at public colleges and universities other than The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, or Prairie View A&M University. The fund is to consist of a formula-derived portion of the first $50 million that comes to the state unencumbered each fiscal year, legislative appropriations or transfers to the fund's credit, and all interest, dividends, and other income from the fund's investment. The bill provides for the annual distribution of the fund's assets to eligible institutions, apportioned on the basis of each institution's average annual expenditures of restricted research funds for the three preceding state fiscal years, and includes a temporary provision applicable to the fund's apportionment in the 2006-2007 fiscal biennium to ensure a certain level of support for institutions currently receiving support from the university research fund.

            The bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to prescribe standards and accounting methods for determining each institution's annual expenditure of restricted research funds and to provide the comptroller with information regarding those expenditures as necessary to determine the apportionment of the research development fund. The bill abolishes the Texas excellence fund and the university research fund, whose respective functions are to be assumed by the research development fund.