Research dollars hit record high

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

ith dollars from the state harder to come by these days, interim Vice Chancellor for Research Fred Byron offered the Faculty Senate some good news May 22 when he reported that research funding is up nearly 11 percent over last year. Byron also announced that income from intellectual property is on the rise.

     Last year at this time, the campus had garnered just over $77.8 million in grants and contracts.

     "We are now 10 months through the year, and our total [of research grants and contracts] is just slightly in excess of $86 million, which is far in excess of what we've ever had at this time [of year] before," Byron said.

    "The faculty success rate at the agencies and also the foundations is really remarkable at the present time," he said. "It's being as successful as I can ever remember in bringing in external support, which speaks very well for the caliber of our people because although there are increases in the funding agencies, the number of people looking for those increases is very large. It's a very, very competitive environment, and we're doing extraordinarily well, right now."

     Biology professor Willy Bemis said he finds the success rate particularly remarkable in light of the size of the faculty.

     "The faculty is smaller than last year because of the retirements, and yet the grant money is increasing," said Bemis, who is a member of the senate's Research Council.

     Byron said that another figure on the rise for the campus is income from intellectual property.

     "For the first time this year we've passed the annual level of $1 million," he said, "so that is another area where the campus is doing very well.

     "Some of our best properties, in fact, will probably not come to market for a few years, but when they do, I think that that level of income to the campus will grow very substantially at that time."