PRF Program Administrator's Comments 2015 Annual Report
The financial status of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) continues to improve. In December 2015, the year-end value of the PRF endowment was more than $500 million for the third consecutive year, and the value of the PRF Reserve Fund rose to a record high. The PRF Reserve Fund enhances our ability to continue to provide research support for fundamental petroleum science, and to overcome the impact of short-term financial downturns on operations.
For the past several years, the volume of proposal submissions to PRF has increased, but an area of concern is the number of proposals on topics that are outside the scope of the PRF Trust. We are limited by the PRF Trust documents to supporting only “fundamental research in the petroleum field” with the term “petroleum field” defined as “petroleum, natural gas, coal, shale, tar sands, and like materials.”
In addition to the information available on our website, PRF Program Managers are useful resources for information regarding your research idea prior to submitting a proposal. Each Program Manager has expertise in a research area fundable by PRF, and is more than willing to answer questions and provide guidance on framing your research so that it is competitive and will be considered for funding. Please view the video of Dr. Nancy Jensen, PRF Program Manager, discussing “The Program Manager as a Resource.”
In 2015, PRF funded 187 research grants totaling $18.62 million. More than 1000 students, from undergraduates to post-doctoral fellows, received support from PRF grants to work on cutting-edge research projects in fundamental petroleum science. In this annual report, you can read about this innovative research conducted by principal investigators and their students throughout the United States and other countries. Thank you for your interest in the ACS Petroleum Research Fund.
Dean A. Dunn, Ph.D., P.G.
Program Administrator
ACS Petroleum Research Fund
