The flow of water research at Northern Arizona University is about to increase thanks to funding from the Arizona Water Institute.

The institute is providing $550,000 for 12 sustainability projects that involve at least two of Arizona's three state universities.

NAU-led water projects include research on protecting the country's water supply, producing an algae biofuel and making the best use of water on the Navajo Nation.

"This sort of applied research is what NAU does well," said Paul Gremillion, an associate professor in civil and environmental engineering at NAU. "NAU was quite successful in this competitive process, with about a third of the funding going to our researchers."

The Arizona Water Institute was formed in 2006 as a collaboration of Arizona's three universities. Its charge is to develop solutions to the state's water challenges through enhancing educational opportunities related to water and by providing better access to information for water managers in Arizona and around the world.

Unlike standard grant programs, the institute manages its projects to ensure that the products developed by university researchers are useful in "real-world" applications. Funds for these projects are from a legislative appropriation to the three universities.

Gremillion noted that all of the institute-funded projects involve partners such as community groups, state agencies, tribes, utilities and private industry.

One of this year's awards went to Nazmul Islam, a new NAU assistant professor in electrical engineering, for his On-Site Microbial Monitoring of Water project.

"This funding will enable Professor Islam to start new collaborations with Arizona State University in a highly promising area of research," Gremillion said. "His project has the potential for developing a new generation of inexpensive environmental sensors that can instantly detect microbial water contamination."

Gremillion said there are thousands of applications of microbial monitoring technology, but homeland security and protection of water supply distribution systems are two of the most important.

Another project is discovering ways to grow algae in wastewater.

Led by Terry Baxter, an associate professor in NAU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, its benefits could include producing an algae biofuel (literally green fuel), reducing the salinity of reclaimed water and removing the greenhouse gas from the wastewater treatment process.

Aregai Tecle, a professor in NAU's School of Forestry, is working with investigators from NAU, ASU and the University of Arizona to help the Navajo Nation further develop strategies for more efficiently managing its hydrologic monitoring network.

NAU researchers also are providing technical water planning assistance to the Coconino Plateau Water Advisory Council.

The Arizona Water Institute also announced a partnership with the National Water Research Institute for $25,000 of co-funding for a project that combines UA and NAU expertise in managing the salts in imported Central Arizona Project water.

For information on all the AWI projects, go to www.azwaterinstitute.org.