UC Santa Cruz researchers attracted a record $148 million in external grants and contracts to the campus in the 2009-10 fiscal year. This represents a 22 percent increase over the previous year and a 12 percent increase over the previous record high of $132 million in 2007-08.
UCSC's continued success in attracting research funding has brought in more than $1 billion over the past ten years, said Bruce Margon, vice chancellor for research.
"This funding supports the research programs that keep our faculty at the forefront of their fields, and it also creates direct and unique opportunities for our students, who are able to work on exciting research projects and learn from faculty who bring the thrill of discovery into the classroom," Margon said. "This shattering of the record is due to the tremendous talent, efforts, and successes of the UCSC faculty and the staff who work with them."
Of the total for 2009-10, $33 million came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the federal economic stimulus program. According to Margon, however, it is hard to tell how many of the ARRA awards would have been awarded even without the stimulus program. "There is no easy way to judge the precise impact of ARRA, but it was certainly positive," he said. "And it is likely that the award totals for us and other U.S. research universities will dip at least slightly next year as the ARRA expires."
A detailed breakdown of the 2009-10 awards is not yet available. As in past years, the largest funding sources for UCSC research were NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
