The University of California, Irvine placed third among 12 institutions in the running to receive part of $25 million to $50 million in grants offered by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The money is part of the institute's major facilities grant program, which funds facilities and projects dedicated to stem cell research.

If grants are awarded to UC Irvine, the money will be used to build facilities on campus that will be used to research and develop stem cell therapies, diagnostics and technologies to treat injury and disease.

The institute has not determined how many grants will be awarded. The institute evaluated UC Irvine on the scientific depth and breadth of its stem cell research program and the relationship of its proposed facility.

UC Irvine’s application ranked third among those received by the institute. Other applications included a proposal from Stanford University and a plan submitted by the San Diego Consortium, which includes the Burnham Institute, University of California, San Diego, the Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute.

"This shows the strength of stem cell research on the UCI campus," said Peter Donovan, co-director of UCI's Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center in a statement. "Now we need to build on our great scientific score to encourage and further community support, which will be the major component of the second round of evaluation.”

Applicant institutions are required to provide a minimum of 20% cash in matching funds to further leverage the project. The institute's second round of consideration will begin in one month.