Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Writer: Judy Purdy> 706/542-5941, jbp@ovpr.uga.edu
Contact: Gordhan Patel> 706/542-5988, glp@ovpr.uga.edu
             Regina Smith> 706/583-0443, ras@ovpr.uga.edu

UGA Research Reaches New High

Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia’s external research funding grew 6.8 percent during the 2004 fiscal year, totaling  a record $159.9 million, compared with $149.8 million received in the previous year. Research support at UGA has increased 56.8 percent during the past five years, according to Gordhan L. Patel, vice president for research and associate provost. This funding is comprised of contracts, grants and agreements from federal, state and corporate sources as well as from private funding agencies.

Patel credits UGA faculty for the continuous growth in research funding, citing a strong record of research, collaboration and innovation, which makes faculty proposals highly competitive with those of other scholars at state, national and international levels.

“The research capacity of the University of Georgia continues to grow in both quantity and quality, and that is very good news for this institution and the state of Georgia,” said President Michael F. Adams.“Given the impact of budget cuts and vacant faculty positions, it is extraordinary that we have seen another increase in research funding. This good news is a testament to the quality of the proposals generated by UGA faculty and the hard work of the research administrative team.”

While research figures are up, UGA’s total external funding – which includes research, instruction, public service and outreach – fell 1.2 percent, ending the year at $227.8 million, said Regina A. Smith, associate vice president for research.

“We are pleased that external awards from federal agencies grew 6.6 percent and funds from industry and corporations grew 23.3 percent,”Smith said. “Growth in these two areas helped offset significant decreases in state and private foundation funding.”

The university, which receives a substantial share of external funding from federal agencies, experienced double-digit increases from the National Science Foundation (up 22.6 percent to $27.2 million) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (up 30.5 percent to $20.4 million). A sampling of FY 2004 grants and contracts follows.

* $6.7 million, five-year grant from the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health, and co-sponsored by the NIH National Cancer Institute, to create a federal center for studying a class of complex carbohydrates found in cell surface molecules that may lead to treatments for cancer and Parkinson’s disease. J. Michael Pierce, a faculty member in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, is the principal investigator.

* $5.3 million, five-year National Science Foundation grant (of $34.6 million awarded statewide) for the Partnership for Reform in Science and Mathematics (PRISM) to improve student achievement in northeast Georgia for grades P-12. Michael Padilla, director of the College of Education’s educational partnerships, is the principal investigator.

* $3.9 million, four-year NSF grant to study genes involved in growth and differentiation of plant tissue. Plant biologist Michael Scanlon is the principal investigator.

* $1.5 million grant from the Georgia Department of Human Resources to train family independence case managers who work with such programs as Medicaid and food stamps. Lettie Lockhart in the School of Social Work is the principal investigator.

* $1 million, four-year NSF grant to expand nanofabrication technology for applications in biosensing. The principal investigators are Yiping Zhao, physics and astronomy department, and William Kisaalita and Guigen Zhang, both of the biological and agricultural engineering department.

* Two NIH grants totaling $1.2 million to enhance the Center for Family Research, which develops and implements effective preventive intervention programs for rural African-American families. The principal investigators are Gene Brody and Velma Murry, both of the Institute for Behavioral Research.

* $0.96 million, one-year award from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety for the Georgia Traffic Injury and Prevention Institute. Donald Bower, a professor in extension family and consumer sciences, is the principal investigator.

Grants in areas such as humanities, fine arts and student training can be considerably less in dollar amounts, but are equally competitive and prestigious.

* Zolinda Stoneman, who directs the Institute on Human Development and Disability, received a two-year, $250,774 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to provide training for judicial system personnel in recognizing and prosecuting crimes against people who are elderly or disabled.

* Paul Sutter, a history professor, received a one-year, $34,900 grant from the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center to prepare an oral history of the Stoddard-Neel method of managing the long leaf pine ecosystem of the southern coastal plain.

* Microbiologist Daniel Colley, who directs the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, received a $275,400 Ellison Medical Foundation grant that enables students and post-doctoral scholars to participate in international research training.

Research funding is an important benchmark among the nation’s major research universities, Patel said. UGA continues to rank among the top 100 public and private research universities for federal research and development expenditures, placing 89^th in the most recent NSF rankings, based on figures from FY 2002.

Total External Funding and Research Funding at the University of Georgia
Five-Year Trend in UGA External Grants and Contracts

FY 2000 – FY 2004