PULLMAN — Washington State University received nearly $156 million in new research grant awards during the 2007-08 fiscal year, an increase of about 16 percent from the previous year.
“Even in a challenging economic environment, our faculty members have continued to find new sources of funding for important research. They are aggressively seeking the funding that is necessary to sustain a culture of discovery and excellence at a research university. Their success is instrumental to WSU’s success,” said President Elson S. Floyd.
Some of the larger grant awards include:
Some of the larger grant awards include:
- $4 million of a $9.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of animal diseases capable of infecting humans
- $4.6 million from the National Science Foundation to understand how vegetable oils provide a renewable energy source
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$3.5 million of a $12 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development to help Afghans rebuild their higher education infrastructure
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Howard Grimes |
The new research total does not include a grant of $25 million received in 2008 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the creation of a School for Global Animal Health, which is expected to allow WSU to become a global leader in research into infectious disease at the animal-human interface.
WSU faculty and researchers also filed a record value of new research grant applications during the 2007-2008 fiscal year, seeking more than $559 million in grant funding from a variety of sources.
“WSU faculty members are extremely competitive with a variety of funding sources,” said Howard Grimes, WSU vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School. “This reduces the impact when the budget for one agency is reduced and allows our faculty to respond when the budget at another agency grows, enabling a balanced portfolio of activities.”
Meanwhile, grant-funded expenditures for research by WSU rose to a record level in the 2007 fiscal year – the most recent year for which data is available – topping $213 million, for an increase of nearly five percent from the previous year. The combined grant-funded expenditures for both research and ongoing public service efforts supported by the university totaled $324,881,000 in the 2007 fiscal year.
Contact: Daniel Nordquist, WSU Grant & Research Development, 509-335-7717, nordquist@wsu.edu
