Research expenditures increase again, reaching new high of
$14.1 million in 2009-10;
Awards received hold steady near $22 million despite
uncertain economy
- Research expenditures at UC Merced surpassed $14.1 million in
the 2009-10 fiscal year, a new record for the campus and a 10
percent increase over the prior year. - Research awards received totaled around $22 million for the
second consecutive year. - Among the notable awards received by UC Merced professors were
two CAREER Awards — the National Science Foundation’s faculty
early career development award — given to Elliott Campbell
and Lin Tian.
MERCED — Last week, the University of California, Merced,
began its sixth academic year by welcoming some 4,000 students, a
new record for the UC’s newest campus.
The bustling, vibrant student body is perhaps the most visual
sign of UC Merced’s continued growth. Just as indicative of that
growth is the continued expansion of the campus’
researcharm, which saw
expenditures increase for the fifth consecutive year despite a
challenging economic landscape.
According to numbers released by the campus’ Business and
Financial Services, research expenditures — the amount of
money spent on UC Merced research, including graduate student
salaries and benefits along with supplies and equipment for
research projects — surpassed $14.1 million in the 2009-10
fiscal year, the highest total in the campus’ history and nearly a
10 percent increase over the $12.9 million in expenditures in 2008-09.
Expenditures are the most relevant measurement of a research
university’s production, said UC Merced Vice Chancellor for
Research Sam Traina, as they represent money being spent on current
projects and being fed back into the economy.
“A major aspect of UC Merced’s mission is research, and these
numbers are concrete proof of the vast amount of groundbreaking
research being done by our faculty and students,” Traina said.
“That our operation was able to grow despite these economic
challenges is a testament to the staying power of the University of
California system and the bright future of the Merced campus.”
The amount of research awards received also held steady in
2009-10, ensuring that expenditures will remain strong in the
coming years. UC Merced faculty pulled in nearly $22 million in
awards, a decrease of less than 4 percent from 2008-09’s $22.8
million. And the 2010-11 fiscal year got off to a rousing start,
with more than $4.5 million in research awards received by UC
Merced researchers in July alone.
The $22 million received in 2009-10 included some notable awards:
- Two CAREER Awards — the National Science Foundation’s
faculty early career development award — received by UC
Merced professors Elliott Campbell and Lin Tian. - A grant of $1.3 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act funds to create the Center of Excellence for the Study of
Health Disparities in Rural and Ethnic Underserved Populations. - A three-year, $1.3 million grant awarded to Professor David
Kelley for his research into finding a less expensive method to
harness and use solar energy. - A $1 million Renewable Energy Secure Communities program grant
from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy
Research program to implement renewable energy applications on
campus that can also used by professors in their research. - A $974,523 grant from the U.S. Department of Education awarded
to Professor William Shadish to develop new statistics for
measuring the effects of educational interventions on individual students.
The money spent on research at UC Merced benefits society on
many levels. It feeds money into the local economy by way of
graduate student salaries; it funds outreach programs designed to
improve health and education in the San Joaquin Valley; and it
leads to new innovations that address many of our greatest societal
challenges on the local, state and global level.
For example, UC Merced’s Stem Cell Instrumentation Foundry
— funded by the California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine — is expected to be a catalyst for the formation and
growth of the biotech industry in the Merced area. The
state-of-the-art facility will also be a tool shared with
researchers across the state.
“From helping underserved young students make healthy choices
and fulfill their utmost potential, to helping understand and solve
the state’s water crisis, to finding new and more efficient ways to
harness solar energy, the research done at UC Merced has been
invaluable,” Traina said. “As the campus continues to grow over the
next several years, the impact of our faculty and student research
will only increase.”
