Act 222 of the 2025 Regular Session of the Legislature repeals the Kevin P. Reilly Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund and all subfunds, including the Board of Regents Support Fund. Similar to the proposed repeal passed in November 2024 during the Third Extraordinary Session, a majority popular vote is required on this constitutional amendment for this repeal to be enacted; the vote will take place on April 18, 2026. Upon passage of the amendment all Support Fund programs will be terminated and funds swept for other purposes as defined by the Legislature and the Governor, meaning all programs will be permanently repealed in FY 2025-26.
Based on this action, at its meeting on June 18th Regents adjusted the approved FY 2025-26 BoRSF budget, adopted in House Bill 1, to prioritize match for a portion of the outstanding endowment requests and a final competitive cycle of the Research Competitiveness Subprogram (RCS). We will release RFPs for these remaining funding opportunities in early July and run competitions on an expedited schedule, to ensure all funding is obligated prior to repeal of the Fund. Competitions for new awards in all other BoRSF competitive grant programs/subprograms (Departmental Enhancement, Industrial Ties Research, Proof-of-Concept/Prototyping, Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars, and BoR/SREB Doctoral Support) will not be offered in FY 2025-26.
RFPs for all competitive programs offered in FY 2025-26 will be available at https://rsi.laregents.edu no later than July 11, 2025 and all submission deadlines will be in fall 2025 (October-November). With the exception of deadlines, endowment RFPs will remain unchanged in the coming cycle, while the RCS RFP will include the following major adjustments:
- Awards are limited to one year (June 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027).
- Eligibility is expanded to include faculty at any level who face identifiable barriers to competitiveness for federal and other external research support.
- Purchases of research equipment are fully eligible and institutional match requirement lifted.
- Budget limits are increased to reflect one-year funding and eligibility of higher-cost equipment.
For the five endowment matching opportunities, staff will request in a separate communication that systems and eligible LAICU institutions again collect complete lists of all outstanding unmatched endowments – both those with all donor funds on hand and those partially contributed at this time – for which BoRSF matching is expected. This request will be sent by the end of the week, with a deadline of July 18th for submission of complete lists to Regents. Endowment competitions for Chairs, Graduate Scholarships, and Workforce Scholarships will operate as normal in FY 2025-26, and all remaining unmatched slots will be submitted to the Legislature upon repeal of the BoRSF.
Finally, existing contracts funded in previous fiscal years, including FY 2024-25, remain unchanged for FY 2025-26. However, Act 222 liquidates all funds associated with the Support Fund, including unexpended revenues earned in previous fiscal years. Since no funds will remain at Regents, unless the Legislature identifies a different funding source, at the end of FY 2025-26 contracts funded in previous cycles will be terminated for lack of appropriation and state matching pledged via the Support Fund to federal awards will no longer be honored.