The University of California, Davis, received more than $684 million in research funds in the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with more than $678 million in the previous year. While federal research dollars fell slightly as “stimulus” funds tapered off, awards from nongovernmental organizations quadrupled, and state research funding grew by half.

“The increase in overall funding for research at UC Davis is an impressive statement about the quality of our faculty and the relevance of their research programs,” said Harris Lewin, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.

“While the campus faces the reality of generally declining levels of federal and state funding for research, we are continually aligning our programs to be among the most competitive in the country. We are making investments now that we expect to propel us into the top 10 universities nationally for extramural research, and will streamline our processes to ensure rapid transfer of UC Davis technology, which will improve the lives of people everywhere,” Lewin said.

In the past decade, UC Davis research funding has more than doubled, from $298 million in 2000-01 to today’s $684.3 million. Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi has set a goal of raising that figure by a third, to $1 billion.

An enhanced research enterprise is a key goal of Katehi’s 2020 Initiative, which will increase undergraduate enrollment by 5,000 students by 2020 and support 300 new tenure-track faculty. It is expected that these new professors will enhance academic and research opportunities for UC Davis students, and bring with them research grants and programs that will address in innovative ways the world’s most critical issues in food, water, health, society, energy and the environment.

Examples of grants awarded to UC Davis faculty in the past year include:

• $40 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lead two national research projects, one focused on improving wheat varieties as a way to ensure an adequate global food supply and one on forest tree genetics as a way to sustain the environment.
• $20 million from the National Institutes of Health for five additional years of funding for the UC Davis Health System’s Clinical and Translational Science Center, which focuses on fast-tracking research findings from the laboratory to the bedside to advance human health.
• $4.8 million from the USDA to fight childhood malnutrition and obesity in California’s Central Valley.
• $3 million from the National Science Foundation to help K-12 teachers increase student success in math.
• $2.7 million from the National Institutes of Health to study links between Alzheimer’s and vascular disease.
• $1.5 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support four research initiatives in the humanities.
• $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation for work on new types of solar cells, research that can help address global warming while reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
• $770,000 from Autism Speaks, a nonprofit organization, for research on gastrointestinal problems in autism.

Awards by sponsor

Awards from the federal government were down overall, at $380 million compared with $437 million the previous year. This may partly represent the tail-off of stimulus funds awarded through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The dip in federal funds was offset by a marked increase in funding from other sources, especially the state of California ($99 million, up from $60 million) and philanthropic foundations and nonprofit organizations ($39 million, up from $8 million).

State research funds are allocated to specific projects and are separate from state general fund allocations to the university, which have been decreasing for several years. These research funds cannot be allocated to other needs formerly supported by state general funds, such as student support.

Other major sources of research funds included:

• corporate awards, $37 million;
• other institutions of higher education (principally grant subcontracts), $39 million;
• other UC campuses or the UC Office of the President, $24 million;
• charities, $30 million; and
• other government sources (states other than California, cities and counties), $13 million.

The largest single source of federal funds remained the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which provided $212 million to UC Davis (compared with $258 million last year). The National Science Foundation awarded the campus $55 million, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture accounted for $38 million.

Other federal award totals:

• State Department, $19 million
• Department of Energy, $18 million
• Department of Defense, $13 million
• Department of Commerce, $9 million
• Department of the Interior, $8 million
• Department of Education, $3 million
• Department of Justice, $870,000
• Department of Transportation, $460,000
• National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities, $180,000

Awards by recipient college or school

Research funds awarded to the UC Davis School of Medicine from all sources totaled $200 million, while the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences received $136 million.

Totals for other schools and colleges:

• School of Veterinary Medicine, $107 million
• College of Engineering, $64 million
• College of Biological Sciences, $54 million
• Office of Research, $41 million (on behalf of interdisciplinary Organized Research Units such as the Bodega Marine Laboratory, the California National Primate Research Center and the John Muir Institute for the Environment.)
• Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, College of Letters and Sciences, $34 million
• University Extension, $13 million
• Division of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Science, $11 million
• Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, College of Letters and Science, $7 million
• School of Education, $7 million
• Division of Graduate Studies, $6 million

The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies showed the largest relative increases in research funds over the previous year, from $108 to $136 million and from $2 to $7 million, respectively.

The 2010-11 UC Davis research fund total includes money from grants and contracts awarded to the university to support research, including grants from philanthropic foundations and other nonprofit organizations. It does not include private gifts, which are reported separately. Following nationally accepted guidelines, grants from philanthropic foundations also may be counted towards philanthropic totals. However, they are counted only once for university accounting purposes.

Much of the money awarded for research goes to support salaries and wages of UC Davis employees, including professors, adjunct faculty, technical staff, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

Research awards include both the direct costs of research, such as salaries and laboratory supply costs, and "indirect" costs. Indirect costs support the university’s research infrastructure, going toward such expenses as upkeep and utilities for research laboratories. Grants and contracts are awarded with strict conditions that typically bar use of the funds for purposes other than research.

Research funding totals were calculated on the basis of dollars transferred to the university during the 2010-11 fiscal year. Some agencies commit to funding multiyear projects but provide funds only one year at a time. In those cases, the grant is counted in annual increments in the years received. If the funding agency provides all of the funds up front, the funds are counted in the first year of funding but not in subsequent years.

According to a survey by the National Science Foundation, UC Davis ranked 16th in the nation in university research and development expenditures and fourth among University of California campuses in fiscal year 2008-09 (the most recent year for which figures are available).

Stimulus funds

As of June 30, UC Davis had received $160 million in federal grants and contracts under the Recovery Act, creating an estimated 342 jobs (full-time equivalent). The largest single Recovery Act-funded project, received last year, was $14.2 million to construct a center for research on respiratory diseases at the campus’s California National Primate Research Center.