Research funding at the University continues to rise, with UA expecting to extend its pattern of substantial annual increases in external funding through fiscal year 2010.
A poor economic climate was the main factor leading to external research funding dipping from 34 to 29 million dollars from fiscal year 2006 to 2007, but research funding rose in the last two fiscal years, with $31 million being received in fiscal year 2008 and almost $39 million being received in fiscal year 2009. Over half of all monetary grants received by UA were directed to educational research.
Dr. Joe Benson, UA vice president for research, believes there is still room for improvement, but the faculty’s commitment shows a positive trend.
“I wish the numbers were greater, but I think we are moving in the right direction. I think the number of submissions and awards show that our faculty is really committed to enhancing our research reputation.”
The process of acquiring external research funding consists of faculty or students applying to various institutions for monetary grants with which they can pursue their research projects. In fiscal year 2009, of the 667 submissions for research funding, 465 were approved for grants.
Benson said funding requests have continued to increase in the 2010 fiscal year, and he expects the increased efforts from faculty will be met with a continued increase in grants.
“The faculty is working much harder to obtain funding,” Benson said. “As of the end of August, we’re running at about 70 more than we were at this point last year. I would guess that we are going to be over 700. That’s where we start. You increase the awards, which is going to drive the expenditures up.”
Benson believes the University’s upgrades of facilities across campus have been a catalyst to the increase in research funding.
“We have had departments that have been in aging facilities and it was difficult for them to compete. We have been fortunate we have been able to use university resources to upgrade some of our facilities,” Benson said. “Particularly in the science and engineering areas, we are moving to a point where we are really going to have facilities that allow us to be much more competitive, and that was a handicap in the past.”
Benson also said professors from diverse areas of campus have contributed to research funding over the past two years, which has led to more student involvement in the process.
“Last year we had two faculty members in political science that got awards from the National Science Foundation. This year we had a faculty member in art that got an award from the NSF,” Benson said. “We’ve got faculty from all over campus that are looking for funding and typically with that funding comes support for graduate students and undergraduate students. We’re trying to make our students more active in the research enterprise.”
Connor Johnson, a USA Today All Academic first team award winner and senior majoring in biology said he believes the research funding has been sufficient, but there is still much more to be had.
“The funding has certainly been adequate,” Johnson said. “But we definitely could still be receiving more. I haven’t ever felt limited, but more funding would be nice”
