NLGI to Award Research Grant Funds

Staff Reports

Time is running out for universities and researchers to apply for NLGI’s 2018 Research Grants program, which funds high-level, original investigation into the science of lubricating greases. Awards can range up to $50,000, and the deadline for applications is March 15.

Areas of research  the organization will consider include fundamental grease chemistry; thickener systems; improved test methods; grease processing technologies; and sustainability of grease production, materials or use, and more. “We welcome proposals on any topic, as long as the effort contributes to the world’s knowledge about greases,” said Crystal O’Halloran, executive director of the National Lubricating Grease Institute in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Pre-competitive research of interest to the wider grease community will be favored, she added, and the grant amounts can range from $1,000 up to $50,000 per year, depending on the complexity of the proposals.

NLGI has a history of funding academic research into lubricating grease, and has supported post-graduate work at a number of universities, said NLGI’s president, Dave Como of Dow Corning. Its most recent grant went to Professor Michael Khonsari of Louisiana State University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, for his 2017 proposal titled “Determination of Grease Life in Bearings via Entropy.” Now underway, this work seeks to establish correlations between the mechanical degradation of a grease and entropy generation, which may help to determine the degradation rate for a given grease and its useful life in the field.

To be considered for a grant, qualified applicants must download and complete the Research Grant Form and submit it electronically to NLGI Headquarters, along with the lead researcher’s qualifications and references, a description of the proposed work and how it meets NLGI’s criteria for research grants, and who will conduct it.

Once the current application period closes on March 15, a grant review committee chaired by Gareth Fish of Lubrizol and made up of grease industry experts will evaluate the proposals and make its recommendations to the NLGI Board of Directors for awarding the grants. The intent is to announce the winning 2018 grant proposal in June, so that research work can begin in the fall semester.

NLGI is committed to a rigorously fair and open process for the grants, stated O’Halloran, and guidelines for the program are posted online at NLGI’s website. The guidelines were developed by a volunteer task force drawn from the lubricating grease industry and academia.

To obtain more information, review the General Guidelines and NLGI Expectations, or to download the Grant Proposal Application Form, visit www.NLGI.org and click on the link to “Research Grants.”