Research funding at UGA reached a record high last year, with researchers receiving more than $173 million from external sources.
“This is a very welcome indication that our efforts to enhance UGA research are paying off,” said David Lee, vice president for research. “Through the efforts of many across campus, we have worked to build interdisciplinary themes, leverage our strengths and recruit outstanding faculty. In current times, academic research is extraordinarily competitive, so that if you’re not moving forward, you’re inevitably slipping behind. We’d rather move forward.”
The previous peak, $150.6 million, was reached in fiscal year 2005. UGA ranks among the top 100 public and private research universities for federal research and development expenditures, placing 94th in the most recent NSF rankings, based on figures from fiscal year 2007.
Sponsored research funding stems from contracts and grants awarded to the university primarily by federal, state or local government agencies; state, national or international private foundations; or individual donors from Georgia and elsewhere.
“The funding success achieved by UGA faculty researchers this year is a reflection of their scientific contributions in areas of important state and national need, such as health, sustainable energy, human development and the environment,” Lee said. “It is work they will continue to build on in the future.”
In fiscal year 2009, federal agencies awarded grants and contracts to UGA researchers totaling $100.6 million, or almost 60 percent of the total. Funding agencies include the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. departments of agriculture, energy, education, defense and commerce. UGA researchers also received sponsored research funding from state and local governments, international agencies and foundations, and private companies developing new technologies.
UGA’s total external funding-which includes research, instruction, public service and outreach-also rose, ending the year at $246.7 million, according to Regina A. Smith, associate vice president for research. Declines in instruction and public service awards were offset by increases in Cooperative Extension and research awards.
Examples of fiscal year 2009 research awards include:
• $1.7 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Faculty of Engineering Outreach to improve air quality by retrofitting diesel vehicles in Athens-Clarke and Washington counties.
• $18.7 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases to research ways to reduce morbidity from schistosomiasis in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.
• The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences received
$2.4 million from the National Science Foundation to understand how to genetically engineer better soybeans; $1.7 million from the USDA to advance the blueberry industry in the Southeast; $1 million from the Georgia Peanut Commission to improve peanuts; and $1.75 million to reduce risk to tomatoes and peppers from thrips and tomato spotted wilt virus in the southeastern U.S.
• $1.3 million from the National Institutes of Health to a collaboration among the College of Education, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Pharmacy to “bring biology to life” for high school students using 3-D models and animation.
• $39,275 from the American Council of Learned Societies to the history department to investigate cultural memory and urban space in the city of Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), China.
• $149,999 from the NSF to the Lamar Dodd School of Art to explore the link between creativity and solutions for complex human and environmental systems.