AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Monday, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced a "new major legislative initiative for the Texas Senate," a state-funded research institute that could focus entirely on dementia. "Dementia is going to increase as the population increases, so as we get a larger population, the state will have more and more people who are experiencing dementia," said Dr. Karen Fingerman, director of the UT Austin Texas Aging and Longevity Consortium. "There's a projection that the population over the age of 65 in Texas is going to increase by 90% in the next 20-30 years, so this is a really pressing issue." The Dementia Prevention Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) would be modeled much like the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), Patrick said. “Structured like CPRIT, and funded for a decade...DPRIT will be laser-focused on Dementia, just as CPRIT is laser-focused on Cancer. Like CPRIT, this investment will draw leading researchers and companies to Texas and require them to be based in Texas, leading to their further investment in our state," Patrick said in a release Monday. Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas hopes to advance research with $49 million in grants According to Patrick, Senate Committee on Finance Chair Joan Huffman, a Republican lawmaker from Houston, will author the legislation in the Senate. “Recently, I also traveled to Midland to meet with former Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, to help shape the legislation with him so we can build unanimous support in both the Senate and House," Patrick said in a release Monday. As with the CPRIT in 2007 (voters then re-authorized it in 2019), should lawmakers pass the DPRIT through the legislature, voters would still need to approve it as a constitutional amendment. "We know that every dollar invested in Alzheimer's and dementia research is a dollar that brings us closer to identifying better treatments and ultimately to finding a cure…it helps recruit people into the field of Alzheimer's and dementia where otherwise they might be working on a different disease," said Richard Elbein, CEO of the Alzheimer's Association Houston & Southeast Texas chapter. But Elbein also said he doesn't want the state to lose sight of families dealing with this disease now, something the Alzheimer's Association has been working on getting more funding for. "The critical additional need is to provide support for those effected by Alzheimer's disease…so that's the reason for the last three legislative sessions the Alzheimer's Association has been advocating for funding specifically to invest in care and support and that's been our number one priority," he said. What has CPRIT done so far, and how much did it cost? The Texas legislature passed, and voters approved the creation of CPRIT in 2007. "In 2019, Texas voters again voted overwhelmingly to support CPRIT with an additional $3 billion, for a total $6 billion investment in cancer research and prevention," CPRIT's website says. According to CPRIT, the agency has granted more than $3 billion to Texas research institutions and organizations "through its academic research, prevention, and product development research programs." CPRIT has also brought 306 researchers to Texas and helped with the creation, expansion or relocation of 62 companies to Texas, its website says.