Research support from external sources reached a record high at the University of California, Santa Barbara last year when a total of $130.4 million was received from federal and state agencies, corporations, and foundations.
By the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2002, this "extramural" funding in the form of research contracts and grants had increased five percent over the previous year's record $124.3 million. The campus was awarded a total of 1,081 research contracts and grants last year.
Over the past 10 years, UCSB has seen an 80 percent increase in research funds from external sources.
"This is a significant achievement, and I am extremely proud of all our colleagues who have played a part in it," said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "Such a growing level of support from external sources is a true recognition of our outstanding faculty and research colleagues and our students, and of the exceptionally high quality of their work."
Steven Gaines, acting vice chancellor for research and director of the Marine Science Institute at UCSB, attributed the increase in contract and grant awards to the campus's collaborative research environment and the quality of the researchers involved.
"UCSB is a place where prominent scholars from a variety of disciplines interact and join together to form new research alliances that are leading to new insights and discoveries across the disciplines," said Gaines.
Funding for the university's interdisciplinary organized research units amounted to more than $49 mil1ion, an increase of more than 22 percent.
The College of Engineering received $43.9 million.
The College of Letters and Science, UCSB's largest academic unit, received $32.4 million, up 28 percent from the previous year.
Research funds to UCSB's two graduate schools, the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, totaled $1.3 million and $2.6 million, respectively.
Among major research contracts and grants received by UCSB last year were $5.6 million from the Department of Energy for high energy physics research; $4.3 million from the U.S. Air Force for nanostructure research in chemistry and biochemistry; and $2.7 million from the National Science Foundation in the form of an integrated graduate education and research traineeship grant focusing on economics and the environment.
Federal support accounted for more than 80 percent of the total, or $103.7 million. Continuing a decade-long trend, the National Science Foundation was the largest single source, providing $43 million in federal funds.
Other major sources of federal support included the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Navy, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, and the Department of Energy.
The balance was provided by state and private agencies, sponsors in business and industry, local governments, and UC campuses and programs.
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