The University has received a record-setting amount of research grants and awards for the second year running.
Research programs at the University received $77.8 million for the 2002-03 fiscal year — a 3.6 percent increase from 2001-02 — according to Richard Linton, University vice president for Research and Graduate Studies.
“We’ve reached a value that was greater than state-appropriated funding to the University,” Linton said. In 2002-03, the state gave the University about $70 million for its expenses.
In the last 10 years, the University has received $570 million for research according to a University press release. Linton said that on average the University receives about 600 different kinds of awards annually for individual faculty or group faculty projects. There are 30 research centers and institutes on campus, such as the Child and Family Center, the Institute of Molecular Biology and the Institute of Neuroscience, Linton said.
Of the funds received, 70 percent went toward research, 21 percent was earmarked for community service and the rest will be used for instruction.
Some the funds were channeled to various projects in the University’s College of Education, said Linda Lewis, education programs specialist.
“We compete with a lot of universities around the country for research grants,” she said.
One of the projects funded was the Sapsik’wala Project, which trains Native American students who want to become teachers. The project received a three-year U.S. Department of Education Indian Education Project Development grant worth $492,241.
“We were able to get the grant because we entered into a partnership with the confederate tribes of Oregon,” Lewis said, adding that there is a shortage of Native American teachers to serve their communities. “Our goal was to meet their needs.”
Other projects in the college receiving large grants include the National Center for Improving Reading Competence Using Intensive Treatments Schoolwide, which researches intervention programs for students with reading disabilities, and the National Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support Studies. Both were granted awards worth nearly $900,000.
While the bulk of the funding — about 90 percent — came from federal sources like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education, the University also received awards and grants from corporations, the state and private donors.
Associate Professor of biology Karen Guillemin received a three-year grant worth $600,000 from the American Cancer Society. Her research focuses on Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that lives in the stomachs of over half the world’s population and is believed to cause stomach cancer in certain cases.
“We are trying to understand how particular strains of the bacterium cause cellular change that leads to cancer,” Guillemin said. She is working actively with three graduate students.
Linton said that there are several reasons for the increased amounts of money for research. One factor is that different federal departments have increased their funding for academic research and development. Another reason is the University faculty’s commitment to seeking out financing for their projects.
“Our faculty are increasingly competitive and successful — and it is competitive — and that’s a tribute to the quality and energy of our faculty,” Linton said, adding that even new faculty have been successful in their quest to bring more funds into the University’s coffers.
Linton said the grants from different sources were especially critical for research.
“The state is really not investing significantly in research,” Linton said. “The only way that it’s going to flourish and succeed is through our individual faculty efforts.”