University sees record year for research funding

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UNIVERSITY SEES RECORD YEAR FOR RESEARCH FUNDING

Kansas State University received a record amount of research funding during the 2009-2010 fiscal year, according to recent reports.

Research photo illustration The university received $147,695,867 from 953 awards issued between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010. Those numbers are a strong increase from the previous record of $133.6 million during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, and a jump from the $118 million awarded in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. During the past two fiscal years, K-State has seen a nearly $30 million increase in research awards despite the economic recession.

"This has been an exciting and busy year for research at K-State," said Ron Trewyn, vice president for research. "K-State is headed in the right direction to being a top 50 public research institution under the leadership of President Kirk Schulz."

Earlier this year Schulz proposed a goal that K-State will be recognized nationally as a top 50 public research university by 2025.

In the 2009-2010 fiscal year K-State also received $4,492,590 from funding with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Most of the stimulus funding went to academic units across the science and engineering disciplines, to "green" infrastructure/facility projects, and to community service initiatives.

"All in all, one cannot credit stimulus funding as the reason for the substantial increase in funding," said Paul Lowe, assistant vice president for research. "Rather, I believe we have to credit the faculty across all colleges for their answering of 'the call' in increasing the number of proposals and the amount of funding requested. The K-State faculty definitely stepped up to the challenge and increased their competitiveness in this very tough economic environment."

K-State, through the Research Foundation, also was issued eight patents during the 2009-2010 fiscal year -- the highest number received since the 2003-2004 fiscal year.

Six faculty members also received the Faculty Early Career Development Program, or CAREER, award from the National Science Foundation, netting more than $3 million in funding during the 2009-2010 fiscal year. This marked the first time that K-State has had that many winners in one year. The CAREER award is one of the nation's most prestigious honors and recognizes the potential of young faculty to become future leaders in their research areas.