U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar blames UTEP president for federal agency canceling $15M grant
The grant, with the potential of growing to $160 million over 10 years, was suspended in spring 2024 by the National Science Foundation after UTEP officials reported the grant proposal had incorrect information that "committed resources that do not exist."
The NSF reported in an Aug. 12 website posting that the grant had ended.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, in a statement issued Friday, Aug. 15, blamed UTEP President Heather Wilson for the lost grant, which Escobar called El Paso's 'moon shot' to greatly advance the local economy.
UTEP received no money from the grant, according to the NSF posting. Most of the funding was reallocated "following the initial suspension of the award," Mike England, a spokesman for the NSF, said in an email.
"As a result, sufficient funds are no longer available to support the project as originally envisioned, and NSF cancelled the award," he said.
Escobar said that a year ago, UTEP President Wilson 'accused highly-respected and beloved El Pasoan' Ahsan Choudhuri, a UTEP professor who oversaw the grant, "of 'incorrect statements' in the (grant) proposal (despite the fact that UTEP was involved in the grant process), demoted him, and set off a series of events that led to the loss of the funding this week."
Escobar did not mention that a $40 million federal grant awarded in 2022 to a UTEP-led regional coalition of agencies remains in place. The coalition is using that money and plans to also use the $15 million NSF grant to grow aerospace and defense manufacturing in this region.
Choudhuri also led the application for the $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
UTEP officials did not immediately respond to El Paso Times' questions about the lost NSF grant and about Escobar's statement.
Choudhuri declined to comment on the lost grant. He previously declined to comment on issues tied to the grant.
He recently left UTEP and will retire from the school in December. He started ARC Aerospace, an aerospace and defense technology company, in El Paso.
In May 2024, after the NSF grant suspension, Wilson removed Choudhuri as director of the UTEP Aerospace Center.
In July 2024, Shery Welsh, an engineer and longtime executive for military research labs, became the new director of the center, which, in the spring, moved into the new, $80 million Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center on the UTEP campus.
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The wrong grant-application information was that UTEP would have access to several county-owned buildings that were not yet built or leased at the county's Fabens Airport, and UTEP did not have 8,000 acres of land for an aerospace test range, according to the May 6 letter from UTEP to the NSF.
The letter did not name Choudhuri or any other individuals.
After NSF officials suspended the UTEP grant, they referred the matter to the NSF Office of Inspector General for further review, the NSF's England reported in May.
A spokesman for the NSF Inspector General said in an email that officials could not confirm or deny if the office investigated the grant issues, even if the case was closed.
Escobar, in her statement, said the "accusation" of incorrect grant proposal statements "triggered an OIG investigation, which to date has not announced any wrongdoing by Dr. Choudhuri."
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: U.S. Rep. Escobar blames UTEP president for canceled $15M grant
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