PRF Program Administrator's Comments 2014 Annual Report
The financial status of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) continued to improve in 2014. For the second consecutive year, the year-end value of the Fund was more than $500 million, so the PRF investments continue to recover from the fiscal problems of the past six years. Also, expanding the PRF Reserve Fund enhances our ability to overcome short-term fiscal crises while continuing to provide research support for fundamental petroleum science. The PRF Reserve Fund increased to a record $29.2 million value at the end of 2014.
In November 2014, the Office of Research Grants was reorganized within the ACS organizational structure, is now a part of the Education Division. This has not affected the PRF mission, and we continue to operate under the terms of the 1944 legal agreement that created the PRF Trust, and the 2000 Agreement of Transfer of Trust. As these documents indicate, the role of ACS PRF is to support only "advanced scientific education and fundamental research in the 'petroleum field'," with the term 'petroleum field' defined as "petroleum, natural gas, coal, shale, tar sands and like materials." ACS PRF grants provide “seed money” for Principal Investigators initiating “new research directions” in fundamental petroleum science.
In the past few years, we have received increasing numbers of proposals on topics that are outside the scope of the PRF Trust. These proposals are not petroleum-relevant, not fundamental (applied or developmental research), and/or not a new research direction for the principal investigator. The PRF Advisory Board has ruled that proposals that are outside the scope of ACS PRF will be eliminated from consideration without external peer review, as the Advisory Board does not want to burden our reviewers with proposals that cannot be considered for funding.
I encourage all interested researchers to carefully read the material on the "Information for Applicants" link of our website (www.acsprf.org). In particular, see the listing of research topics supported by PRF as well as those that are not supported. If you are still uncertain after consulting our website, please contact the appropriate Program Manager, before taking the time to write a proposal which may be uncompetitive, or outside the "petroleum field" as defined in our founding documents. A list of our Program Managers, and the research areas that they manage, can be found at the Contact PRF link.
In 2014, ACS PRF funded 192 research grants totaling $19.07 million. In this annual report you can view a video of Dr. Askar Fahr, PRF Program Manager, discussing what constitutes a new direction for an investigator. You can also read about the innovative research funded in 2014 and previous years, conducted by principal investigators and their students throughout the United States and other countries.
Dean A. Dunn, Ph.D., P.G.
Program Administrator
ACS Petroleum Research Fund
