Overland Park ? With their first installment of money arriving in less than three months, members of the Kansas Bioscience Authority board have begun the cumbersome process of deciding how to spend a projected $581 million over the next decade.

Board members spent Thursday discussing their vision for the authority, which was created by the Kansas Economic Growth Act, approved by the Legislature in 2004, and clarified in a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

The legislation uses tax growth in the life science industry to fund additional academic and economic development improvements in the field. The first portion of that money — about $5 million — will be transferred to the authority in late June or early July.

Board members said Thursday they hoped to create 10,000 bioscience jobs in five years, and they wanted to have the state’s life science industry to grow at a rate faster than the growth in other states.

Possible areas of investment include more and higher-paid university faculty members, venture capital money for start-up companies and incentives for businesses to build locations in Kansas. The board made no specific decisions about funding Thursday and will resume discussions at its next meeting in early July.

“Basically, what we’re going to have to do is, by category, decide where we want to invest,” said Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway.

And with money only trickling in at first — available funds are expected to reach $126 million annually by 2015 — that may be difficult, Chairman Clay Blair said.

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“Instead of taking a shotgun approach and being very universal, we’re going to have to take a very targeted approach,” said Blair, an Overland Park businessman.