By Lee Katterman
Office of the Vice President for Research
Research expenditures at U-M made the largest percentage increase
in more than 10 years in fiscal year 2002, bringing the total to
nearly $656 million.
“Michigan’s success in attracting research investment
benefits the University, the community and the state of Michigan,”
President Mary Sue Coleman says. “Our outstanding research
performance attracts faculty of the highest quality and provides
our students with a rich learning environment. Our prominence as
the nation’s leading research university supports the state’s
economic infrastructure and serves as a powerful magnet to new ventures.”
The 10.8 percent increase in 2001-02 resulted from growth in nearly
all major areas of research. It was led by a 17 percent boost in
funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
which includes the National Institutes of Health. HHS accounts for
nearly half of the sponsored program funding at U-M and is the primary
fuel for the expansion of life sciences research. In all, federal
funding rose 12.4 percent and non-federal support, excluding U-M
contributions, increased by 9.2 percent.
This marks the 20th consecutive year of research increases at the
University. In the last five years, research expenditures have increased
by 43.1 percent, from more than $458 million to nearly $656 million.
“Michigan’s success is the outgrowth of our institutional
fabric,” says Fawwaz Ulaby, vice president for research. “This
unprecedented increase is a tribute to the faculty’s creativity
in generating exciting ideas and novel solutions to research problems;
to the graduate students, post-docs and other members of the research
community who carry out so much of the daily work involved in the
research projects; and to the administrative staff throughout the
University who provide the support infrastructure that makes all
the research possible.”
Research funding represents support from a combination of sponsors,
including all areas of government, private foundations and corporations.
In addition, the University allocates substantial funding of its
own for research, a total of more than $100 million in fiscal 2002,
a 6 percent increase. University support seeds new research projects,
promotes novel and hard-to-fund areas of scholarship, and helps
build the advanced infrastructure that sustains leading-edge research.
In a time of constrained state resources, the growth in research
funds is highly beneficial to University students. Marvin G. Parnes,
associate vice president for research and executive director of
research administration, notes the broad impact.
“Research support is essential not only to maintaining the
growth in research activity, but, combined with other resources,
to supporting state-of-the-art facilities for undergraduate and
graduate student learning, and financing a large portion of our
graduate students’ tuition and living expenses,” Parnes
says.
Ulaby will make a complete report to the Regents and the University
community on the status of research at U-M at a fall Regents meeting.
