ASU research grows to more than $218 million

ASU’s research expenditures grew to $218.5 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. This represents a growth of $15 million or 7.4 percent over last year’s total of $203.5 million.

“We experienced decent growth in our research expenditures this year, considering that there was a change in leadership in Congress that resulted in some delays in finalizing the Federal budget,” says R.F. “Rick” Shangraw, ASU’s vice president for research and economic affairs. “Right now, our proposal activity is up so I am optimistic about continued growth in our research portfolio.”

Shangraw says that at these levels of research expenditures, ASU ranks in the top tier of universities without a medical school and without an agricultural school.

The $218.5 million total research dollars for FY07 comes from a variety of sources. ASU spent $173.3 million in funds received from the federal government and industry, $39.1 million in state funds (including Technology & Research Initiative Funds from state sales tax revenue), $4.3 million in funds received by the ASU Foundation specifically for research projects and $1.8 million from local governments.

There was a wide variety of projects that brought in major funds in FY07, said Stephen Goodnick, ASU associate vice president for research. Those projects included the Flexible Display Initiative Center, which was funded at more than $9 million by the U.S. Army; the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera project got $3.85 million from NASA; a Department of Education grant of $2.35 million went to a program at ASU’s Speech and Hearing Science Department to maximize learning opportunities for young children with disabilities, and $2.35 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was provided to the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology for a project on “opening routes to math and science success for all students.”

The National Institutes of Health awarded $1.44 million for a project to explore plant-made microbiocides and mucosal vaccines; ASU’s Decision Center for a Desert City received $1.4 million from the NSF; and ASU’s Nanotechnology in Society Center received $1.4 million from NSF.

Fiscal year 2006 was the first time research expenditures at ASU topped the $200 million level, and it marked a doubling of research expenditures in a period of six years. This is a remarkable growth rate for a relatively young major research university, Shangraw said.

He adds that ASU is poised to earn more in research as it continues to bring on line new world class research facilities and ramps up its science expertise. Shangraw sees a maturing of ASU research efforts, which should result in securing larger grants for the university in the future.

“We have reached a point where a number of investigators are interested in and able to compete for much larger research projects,” he says. “Our ability to match up against the more mature and better funded research institutions is a sign that we are moving into an elite tier of U.S. research universities. This is an exciting time for ASU research.”