Montana State University has announced a five-year, $5.76 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation to support and expand research on the impact of regulation and policy on society.

The funds will support two tenure-track faculty positions, research fellowships, research grants, and graduate and undergraduate research assistant training opportunities. The grant will enable professors Wendy Stock and Vince Smith in MSU's Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics to expand their research in the areas of regulatory economics as applied to sectors such as agriculture, health care, technology, finance, natural resources, and education.

"Regulations can serve the public interest by protecting citizens, the environment, businesses and financial markets," said Smith, who serves as the project's principal investigator. "However, at times, advances in areas such as biotechnology, engineering, computer science, natural resource management and other fields outpace the relevance of existing regulatory structures."