UC Research Funding Hits All-Time High of $333.5 Million

CINCINNATI—Research dollars coming in to the University of Cincinnati (UC) and its affiliates hit an all-time high in 2007 of $333.5 million.

Data for fiscal year 2007 was presented Tuesday, Nov. 27, to the UC Board of Trustees by Sandra Degen, PhD, vice president for research.

Although the 2007 total was up only slightly from 2006, Degen says UC has had success in gaining federal funding that has been hard to come by.

“The majority of UC’s research funding comes from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—a funder of basic and clinical research whose budget has remained flat for some time now,” said Degen. “UC researchers were able to increase the university’s total NIH funding by more than $6 million in 2007.

“That says a lot about the quality of research happening here.”

Several colleges saw significant increases in their total research funding for 2007. They include:

The Academic Health Center and affiliates—supported mostly by NIH grants— brought in more than $270 million in 2007. This represents 81 percent of the university’s total research dollars.

The College of Medicine saw a $4 million spike, which is largely credited to an increasing number of proposals submitted and several large, federally funded research grants that were added to the books in 2007, says Degen.

“A $9 million grant for bipolar disorder research, $6.4 million for obesity studies, $6.4 million for research in HIV/AIDS, $4.7 million for UC’s mouse metabolic phenotyping center. All of these new awards add up to a very successful year for UC research,” she said.

In addition to UC’s “big grants,” Degen highlighted other 2007 research successes, including:

·       Two Ohio Eminent Scholars positions—Ohio awarded only two Eminent Scholars positions in 2007—both to UC.

·       Live Well Collaborative—UC entered into a unique business model for industry-university collaboration that will link faculty and students with corporations seeking new product and service innovations for those aged 50 and over.

·       Drug Discovery—Procter & Gamble (P&G) provided full access and use of its chemical compound library to UC’s Genome Research Institute (GRI).

·       Sustainable Urban Engineering (SUE)—A new SUE education and research center will work to break down disciplinary silos to solve the challenges of modern urban centers without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs.

·       Solar House Competition—UC was one of 20 universities from around the world selected to compete in the Solar Decathlon competition.

The Office of Research continues to provide support to faculty working to obtain preliminary data required for federal grant applications. The office’s University Research Council awarded more than $650,000 in grants in 2006–07 and continues to offer workshops to give faculty the tools needed to write successful proposals.

And, Degen says, many around the university are hard at work on applications for two new well-supported state initiatives aimed at attracting students and faculty into science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) disciplines.

Affiliates included in UC’s research-dollar total are Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Shriners Hospital for Children, Cincinnati, and clinical trials at UC Physicians.

To view the full 2007 report on research, visit research.uc.edu.