UF reports record amount of research awards, nearly $500 million

August 18, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Research awards to the University of Florida rose 5 percent to a record $494 million in 2004-05, due in part to a 10.8 percent increase in federal funding and a 16.5 percent increase in foundation awards.

Awards from federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, which account for 64 percent of UF’s total, rose $30.9 million between 2003-04 and last fiscal year. Despite a leveling off in the NIH budget, awards from that agency — UF’s largest funding source — rose 15 percent to $130 million. Awards from NSF rose 10 percent to $46.6 million.

“The increase from last year reflects the hard work and dedication of UF’s faculty and graduate students,” who submitted 4,903 proposals, a 13 percent increase over the previous year, said Win Phillips, UF vice president for research. “Faculty and graduate students are the intellectual engines behind our sponsored research success.”

UF’s Health Science Center accounted for just over half of the university’s total, with its six colleges receiving a record $257.1 million, up 9 percent. The university’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences saw its awards increase nearly 17 percent to $84.4 million. The College of Engineering remained steady at $63.3 million, as did the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at $47.4 million.

The university has made a concerted effort to pursue more research support from private foundations, and that was reflected in the 2004-05 awards, which saw foundation contributions rise 16.5 percent from $49.4 million to $57.5 million. Among the notable foundation awards was $875,000 from the W.M. Keck Foundation to the Department of Astronomy to build a new instrument for increasing the speed and scope of planetary detection.