Extracts
Research Funding Up 2.2 Percent To $574 Million
Joseph Kays
University of Florida faculty continue to excel at securing research funding, even in a weak economy. Last year, nearly 2,000 faculty received $574 million in research awards, a 2.2-percent increase over the previous fiscal year.
Led by double-digit increases to both the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the university¡¦s total research funding for the 2008-2009 fiscal year that ended June 30 represented a $12.4 million increase over $561.6 million in 2007-2008.
¡§During a challenging economic period when the university has been under extreme budgetary pressures, our faculty continued their commitment to securing external funding for their research,¡¨ said Win Phillips, UF¡¦s vice president for research. ¡§In addition to furthering science, this funding impacts all facets of Florida¡¦s economy, benefiting everyone from construction workers to graduate students.¡¨
The $574 million in research funding generates more than $1.2 billion in business activity and 10,500 jobs, according to economic impact methodology from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Federal awards, which account for 58 percent of UF¡¦s total, rose 4.3 percent to $336.5 million, led by the National Institutes of Health with $131.7 million and the National Science Foundation with $46.3 million. Funding from state agencies, which make up 13 percent of the total, was down by 8 percent to $75.8 million.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recorded a 14.3 percent increase to $47.9 million. Funding to the physics department for research about gravitational waves from the earliest moments of the universe reached nearly $4 million last year. Other significant CLAS grants included $780,000 from NSF to help fund a graduate education program in ecology.
IFAS awards rose 13.8 percent to $120.1 million, bolstered by $4 million from the Department of Defense to UF¡¦s Center for Food Distribution and Retailing, to develop better tracking systems for military food. Other IFAS awards included $1.3 million to study the citrus genome and $911,000 to improve the flavor of tomatoes.
College of Engineering awards rose 8.7 percent to $72.8 million, including $15 million from the State of Florida for research and administration of the Florida Energy Systems Consortium, a statewide program to develop alternative energy sources.
¡§Florida¡¦s academic research is focused both on energy generation and energy conservation, making it highly relevant to the state¡¦s future path,¡¨ Phillips said. ¡§This consortium brings together energy researchers at our universities to address the larger, statewide energy challenges facing Florida.¡¨
Funding to the Health Science Center, which accounts for half of UF¡¦s total, remained about the same as last year at $289.3 million. Major Health Science Center awards funded projects on smoking cessation, hypertension and blindness.