Gov. Sonny Perdue's budget before the Georgia General Assembly includes $38 million — the final payment of the state's share for an $84 million nanotechnology research center at Georgia Tech.

The Legislature will appropriate its budget allocations in late March or early April when the session ends.

Tech began site preparation in January for construction of the nanotechnology research center on Atlantic Drive at the location of the former Neely Nuclear Research Center.

"They're moving earth right now," said Andrew Harris, a special assistant to President Wayne Clough.

The state committed a total of $45 million to build the center and had already awarded Tech $7 million.

"We've already received state money for the design and some site development," Harris said. "Tech is committed to raise $39 million in private funds for the center.

"Actually, we're probably going to raise another $50 million in addition to that," Harris said. "Tech is going to put in nearly $100 million before the nanotechnology research center is completed."

Clough said the new center will put Tech on the frontier of nanotechnology research.

"Building the nanotechnology research center will allow us to be among the early pacesetters in the even more important field of nanotechnology. This will provide our researchers and our research partners working in both organic and inorganic applications of nanotechnology to have a facility second to none worldwide," Clough said.

Another Tech priority for this legislative session is $55 million in full-formula funding, which Perdue also recommended in the governor's total of more than $1 billion proposed to support full-formula funding system-wide.

"That's our bread and butter," Harris said. "Full-formula funding is our basic state funding for our faculty, operations and maintenance. The formula is based on enrollment. If enrollment increases, then the formula funding increases."