South Carolina is betting $30 million in lottery money on six university research programs that officials hope eventually will bring new jobs to the state.

A state committee Tuesday approved spending on six specialized research projects at Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina.

The projects are part of the state's new endowed chairs program, which should help the schools recruit leading scientists. The research they produce is expected to jump-start the state's economy by drawing high-tech businesses.

The nine-member Centers of Excellence Review Board chose to spread the state's investment among the following programs:

? Automotive research at Clemson in partnership with BMW - $10 million, with a promise of $5 million next year

?_Marine genomics (studying the genetics of marine life) at MUSC - $4 million

?_Proteomics (identifying disease markers) at MUSC - $4 million

?_Neuroscience at MUSC - $3 million

?_Nanotechnology (studying materials at the atomic level) at USC - $4 million

?_And a joint USC/MUSC brain imaging project - $5 million.

Only three proposals - the automotive research, marine genomics and brain imaging - were rated as "outstanding" by a panel of expert reviewers earlier this year and were recommended for funding. The board opted to go with additional programs after lobbying by the schools' presidents.

Creating the program's ground rules, which were finalized Tuesday, had been difficult and board members admit to first-year growing pains.

"The future of this program depends on what we do .‘.‘. the Legislature is watching us," said board chairman Ed McMullen.

"The purpose of this program is to get the best projects from the universities, and that's what we did today," McMullen said. "This is one of the most astounding things South Carolina has done in a long time."

Schools must come up with a dollar-for-dollar match within 18 months for the lottery money they receive, bringing the actual amount spent to $60 million. The state will allocate $30 million annually for the next four years.

The board and university presidents spent nearly five hours Tuesday debating projects.

Despite earlier pledges of collaboration, the universities were divided. MUSC and USC argued for including more projects, mostly their own, while Clemson wanted half the lottery money for its automotive research.

Clemson president James Barker said while there's agreement on broad ideas, "how we get these ideas funded is a whole other question."

The board ultimately chose to adopt a formula proposed by USC president Andrew Sorensen that took some money from Clemson to fund the others.

"At the risk of sounding terribly prejudiced, I was grateful it came out the way it did," Sorensen said.

By far, the biggest award still went to Clemson - $10 million from this year's funds, plus a guarantee of an additional $5 million out of next year's lottery.

Clemson officials say the project could eventually create thousands of jobs in the Upstate, and the school already has a commitment from BMW to put up the $10 million match.

Members insisted the decision to allocate a portion of next year's money was a one-time action.

"It's a terrible message in a terrible fiscal year to overspend our authority," said board member Robert Pearce.

The decisions on specific research projects were based on reviews from outside scientists, input from the schools and their ability to attract private donors and corporate interest.

Of the six projects approved, two had not been recommended by the outside review panel -USC's nanotechnology and MUSC's neuroscience projects.

But school officials protested the panel's assessments, and said excluding them would hurt their research efforts.

The board also opted not to fund a proposal to establish a regenerative medicine center, a project that won praise from reviewers and involved all three universities.

MUSC president Ray Greenberg said that proposal likely had the strongest scientific merit of all.

The regenerative medicine proposal likely will be re-submitted for consideration next year. The board will meet again in August to discuss a timetable for reviewing new proposals.

Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com.