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Home > About BNE > Press Room > Current Articles > March > UB reports increase in research spending

                                       

                                                               

UB reports 8.5% increase in research spending

                                                                                              

By Jay Rey NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 03/18/08 6:42 AM

Research spending at the University at Buffalo jumped to a university record of $323.4 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007, an 8.5 percent increase from the previous year’s $297.9 million.

“Our research effort is very strong,” said Jorge V. Jose, UB’s vice president for research. “We’re sustaining funding. The fact is, you have to move fast to stay still, because the competition is fierce.”

Funding is one of the barometers for UB as it tries to build a reputation as a top-tier public research institute.

Among public universities in the United States, UB ranks 39th in research spending, right behind Rutgers University and the University of California, Irvine, and just ahead of the University of South Florida and the University at Albany, according to the National Science Foundation’s most recent survey.

Among all colleges and universities, UB ranks 58th, according to the survey.

Jose’s goal, over the next few years, is to raise UB’s spending to $400 million.

Last year, more than 97 percent of the money was spent on research in the sciences and engineering, while the rest — $8.58 million — was in other areas, such as the humanities, education, social work and professional programs.

Although UB’s research expenditures continue to climb, the university is getting less from its largest supporter — the federal government.

Research and development funds awarded to UB through the various federal agencies dropped by 2.8 percent from the previous year.

Jose cited a few reasons why UB’s research spending still was able to increase last year.

In recent years, the university has been stressing more faculty collaboration across disciplines to capture research dollars, and UB researchers have done a good job at that, Jose said.

UB, he noted, also has been hiring more faculty in recent years and spending institutional funds on getting those researchers up and running. The school provides internal seed money to some of the more promising research, as well.

Funding from state and local governments rose 15 percent to $14 million, and money from private industry rose 15 percent to $21.2 million.

“We have a multipronged approach,” Jose said. “We have tried to be innovative and ready to go into new areas, but the amount of money being appropriated by Congress has gone down significantly. This is a serious national problem.”

jrey@buffnews.com