The Kansas Bioscience Authority is looking to make yet another commitment to cancer research at Kansas University.

On Monday, the KBA investment committee approved spending $1.775 million over five years to fund the position of Rakesh Srivastava, a professor of pharmacology, toxicology and therapeutics at KU Medical Center. The investment committee’s recommendation will be passed on to the entire KBA board next week. The funding is part of KBA’s eminent scholar program.

Srivastava joined KU Medical Center this fall from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. Srivastava and fellow University of Texas Health Science Center researcher Sharmila Shankar brought $3 million in National Cancer Institute funding with them to KU. The funding will aid KU in its quest to obtain NCI designation for the KU Cancer Center.

The investment committee also recommended granting $1.5 million to the international farm machinery company AGCO. The money will match a $5 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to build farm machinery that will better compress plants into square bales to be used for biofuel production.

More than $10 million of the $11 million project is estimated to be spent in Kansas.