Despite the DEA’s failure to reclassify cannabis, Washington state is moving forward with plans to allow private companies to conduct scientific research on the plant, the News Tribune reports. Officials expect to begin accepting license applications for the program in January.

Republican State Sen. Ann Rivers, who sponsored a bill to move the plan forward, said the information gleaned from the study could be used by legislators to create policy. Discoveries made in the program could be applied directly to the state’s medical and recreational markets.

“The importance of it really hit home when the DEA decided not to reschedule medical marijuana because, they said, ‘we just don’t have enough research,’” she said in the report.

Washington to Allow Private Companies to Apply for Cannabis Research Permits