FSU research produces record $230 million

FSU research produces record $230 million


"The infusion of new faculty at Florida State University – approximately 200 total professors over the past two years – is already paying off in terms of sponsored research.
For the 2014 fiscal year that ended June 30, FSU faculty accumulated slightly more than $230 million in grants and contracts, the bulk of it from federal agencies. It represents a 15 percent increase over 2013, said Gary Ostrander, vice president for research at FSU, and it easily tops the previous school-best $215 million established four years ago at the height of federal stimulus money.
“Everyone may not realize this, but that’s money that is going to be cycling in our community’s economy. There are a lot of jobs that are created when our professors are awarded that kind of money,” Ostrander said.
An FSU study prior to Ostrander’s arrival in October 2012 found that when FSU brings in $200 million in sponsored research, it translates into more than 2,000 jobs in greater Tallahassee.
The bulk of the $230 million – the final number is still being tabulated as the National Science Foundation and other agencies complete their paperwork for the 2014 fiscal year – goes toward salaries for faculty and their research staffs, Ostrander added.
FSU has been able to increase its faculty ranks in large part because of its designation by the Legislature as a preeminent university, which provides FSU and University of Florida with tens of millions of additional dollars as they pursue national ranking goals. But FSU has also been making a deliberate effort to compete for additional grants and contracts.
Ostrander last year created an office designed specifically to assist professors completing grant proposals, and he is hoping to add a third person to that office as soon as possible.
FSU interim President Garnett Stokes said FSU began deploying money from the provost’s office to start making strategic faculty hires in 2012 as part of the university’s effort to elevate its national ranking from No. 40 to the top 25 among the nation’s public universities.
“We’ve made major investments in STEM areas. It’s good to see these investments paying off earlier than expected, and we are very pleased to have a record year in grant funding,” Stokes said. “It simply couldn’t have happened without the exceedingly hard work of our faculty and the staff that support them,” Stokes said.
The Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s 12 public universities, reports that for fiscal year 2013 the entire system brought in more than $1 billion in federal grants and contracts. UF, thanks in large part to its affiliation with Shands Hospital, was responsible for the lion’s share: $417 million. University of South Florida was second, with $205 million, and FSU was next at $158 million.
These figures did not include state grants and contracts of funding from private foundations. Florida A&M had almost $40 million.
Ostrander admitted that he was pleasantly surprised in late spring when he realized FSU had eclipsed the $215 million total from 2010.
“Next year, everything being equal,” he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes higher. Part of that is because we have continued to hire aggressively, bringing in really strong faculty.”