Kansas University researchers are hoping to make a pitch for federal funds Friday and Saturday when the director of the National Institutes of Health will be in Kansas.

Dr. Elias Zerhouni will be on the Medical Center and Lawrence campuses to talk about the institutes, learn about KU programs and offer suggestions on technology transfer in the state. He will be joined by Judith Ramaley, a former KU executive vice chancellor who now is assistant director of the National Science Foundation.

“This puts Lawrence and Kansas on the national map,” said state Rep. Tom Sloan, the Lawrence Republican organizing the visit. “When I invited them, I specifically said I want them to serve as a catalyst to develop cooperation in the bioscience industry.”

Zerhouni and Ramaley will be on the Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan., on Friday for tours of the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center and other facilities. U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts will be involved in the Kansas City visit. Zerhouni will meet with leaders, who will outline research projects under way.

“He has a firm grip on what it is our science means,” said Joan Hunt, senior associate dean for research and graduate education at the Medical Center. “I see our role as pointing out where we are at this point and what we need the most.”

For Saturday, Sloan has organized a daylong Regional Biosciences Collaborative Summit, which will draw between 75 and 100 researchers, policy-makers and others to the Dole Institute of Politics on the Lawrence campus.

Brownback and U.S. Reps. Jim Ryun, 2nd District Republican, and Dennis Moore, 3rd District Democrat, are among those expected to attend.

Sloan said the event would focus on turning university research into startup companies, which will be a key to the success of the Kansas Economic Growth Act approved by this year’s Legislature. The act uses growth in the life science industry to fund research at state universities and business development. It is expected to generate $500 million in the next 10 years.

“KU and the Med Center get all kinds of NIH and NSF grants, but a lot of that money doesn’t stay in the region,” Sloan said. “It gets farmed out. We want to make the contacts and collaborations so more of that research money stays here.”

The NIH, based in Bethesda, Md., has a budget of more than $27 billion and serves as “steward of medical and behavioral research for the nation.” Zerhouni has been director since May 2002.

He may be best known for creating the “NIH Roadmap,” which emphasizes collaboration and multidisciplinary research as the institute’s future.

“The NIH is emphasizing more in terms of getting research to the bedside, and KU can cover that whole spectrum,” said Jim Roberts, vice provost for research on the Lawrence campus. “I think we present a great picture for the NIH in terms of matching the roadmap.”