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LAWRENCE -- Total research expenditures at the University of Kansas for fiscal year 2002 set a school record and inched closer to the $250 million mark, officials recently announced.
The $243 million in KU's total research expenditures during fiscal year 2002 is an increase of 8.4 percent from the previous record of $224 million, set in fiscal year 2001. The 2002 total marks the sixth consecutive year that research expenditures have increased at KU. Since 1995, when Robert Hemenway became KU's chancellor, KU's total research expenditures have nearly doubled, from $124 million in fiscal year 1995 to the current mark of $243 million.
During fiscal year 2002, science and engineering research at KU accounted for $172 million, while training and non-science research accounted for $71 million.
"Research efforts at the University of Kansas are stronger than ever, despite difficult economic times," said Hemenway. "This continued success speaks highly of the caliber of research conducted here that benefits both the Kansas economy and our quality of life."
In terms of economic benefit to the state, a U.S. Department of Commerce formula calculates that every $1 million in university research funding adds slightly more than 42 new jobs to the state of Kansas. Using that formula, KU's total of $243 million translated into about 10,250 jobs throughout the state.
Two recent studies provide further evidence that funding for university research goes hand in hand with state economic success:
• A November 2002 study by the National Science Foundation found that eight of the top 10 states in university research and development expenditures also were among the top 10 states in total R&D expenditures. Kansas was not among the study's top 10 states in either area.
• An October 2002 report from the Small Business Administration found that new companies form around university research centers in large part because of the "information spillover" that is crucial in knowledge-based industries. In KU's case, research efforts started at the university so far have resulted in the formation of 23 start-up companies in the state, according to officials in KU's Technology Transfer office.
Robert Barnhill, vice provost for research and president of the KU Center for Research, said the increase in total research expenditures is just one factor -- along with teaching awards, fellowships and endowments -- that helps measure a university's success.
"This success stems from many collaborations, from people working together across campus and among the regents institutions throughout Kansas," he said. "Major awards to teams of KU faculty have lifted the profile of the university nationally."
Among the largest grants awarded to KU this year was a five-year, $10.1 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant enables scientists from KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University to support projects in the burgeoning field of proteomics, which is the study of cellular proteins and their structures, functions and interactions.
The COBRE grant was just one example of the statewide effort to create projects that address the federal government's highest research priority: the broad field of life sciences.
The Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement project, which has received $10 million from the NIH over the past three years, is yet another major collaborative life sciences effort spearheaded by KU researchers. The RISE project, a partnership between KU and Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, encourages American Indian students to pursue degrees in biomedically relevant fields.
Research projects like these helped KU achieve a faster growth rate in the federal life sciences research market than any of the top 50 comprehensive public universities in the nation from fiscal year 1996 to fiscal year 2000, according to the NSF.
That growth rate remains healthier than ever, Barnhill said. In fiscal year 2002, researchers at the Lawrence and KU Medical Center campuses combined for $64 million in federal life sciences research expenditures, an increase of almost 17 percent from the previous year. KU's research expenditures from the NIH alone increased from $44.4 million in fiscal year 2001 to $50.7 million in fiscal year 2002, an increase of 14 percent that was due in large part to KU's role in the Kansas City Life Sciences Initiative.
The increase in federal life sciences funding no doubt will help KU in the NSF's ranking of federal science and engineering research expenditures, Barnhill said. In the most recent NSF rankings, which covered expenditures during fiscal year 2000, KU ranked 51st among public universities and 78th among the more than 500 universities surveyed nationwide.
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