April 29, 2004

Researchers continue to attract competitive awards

Sponsored research grants total more than $328M, a 1 percent increase over last year

Sponsored research grants totaled $328.1 million in the 2003 fiscal year, a 1.1 percent increase from the previous year.

“These numbers are evidence of the success of Northwestern investigators in winning competitive awards to fund their research activities,” said C. Bradley Moore, vice president for research. “The faculty are carrying out innovative research programs that are nationally and internationally recognized for their cutting-edge science and their value to society.”

Federal awards accounted for 78.4 percent of the total dollar volume. Federal funding increased 11.1 percent, from $231.5 million to $257.2 million in 2003.

The major source of the total 1,412 federal grants was the Department of Health and Human Services, which made 736 awards with a volume of $175.1 million, an increase of 18.2 percent. Other major federal sources were the National Science Foundation with $35.0 million and the Department of Defense with $26.6 million.

Non-federal awards dropped 23.7 percent, from $93.0 million to $70.9 million, due in large part to the delay in receiving a $10 million construction grant for The Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center of Northwestern University which was not funded because of state budget cuts.

Awards from two other sources also fell – industry, down 26.4 percent from $27.2 million to $20.0 million, and foundations, down 19.3 percent from $24.5 million to $19.8 million.

The Feinberg School of Medicine posted an award volume of $168.2 million, the largest award volume among academic units and an increase of 8.9 percent from $154.5 million in 2002. The Feinberg awards accounted for slightly more than half of the University’s total dollar volume.

The largest Feinberg funding went to the department of medicine, with 348 grants totaling $45.1 million, an increase of 24.1 percent. Other departments with large amounts were cell and molecular biology, $11.4 million; physiology, $11.3 million; microbiology-immunology, $10.5 million; and pathology, $9.1 million. Awards to The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University totaled $15.5 million.

Awards to the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences increased 7.5 percent, from $42.2 million to $45.4 million. Science disciplines in Weinberg recorded the largest amounts – chemistry, $13.5 million; biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology, $11.1 million; physics and astronomy, $5.8 million; and neurobiology and physiology, $5.7 million.

The awards for University research centers increased 4.4 percent from $41.3 million to $43.1 million, led by the Center for Functional Genomics, $9.8 million, and the DND Synchrotron Research Center, $6.1 million. The Institute for Policy Research and the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanoscience in Advanced Medicine each received awards totaling $4.4 million.

Awards to the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science fell 4.2 percent, dropping from $45.5 million to $43.6 million. Awards to materials science and engineering amounted to $6.1 million while the volume for chemical engineering totaled $5.5 million. Three McCormick areas topped $4 million in volume – biomedical engineering, the Center for Intelligent Processing of Composites and mechanical engineering.

Total awards for other academic units in fiscal 2003 were: central administration, $10.5 million; School of Communi-cation, $5.4 million; School of Education and Social Policy, $4.8 million; Kellogg School of Management, $1.2 million; School of Law, $3.4 million; Medill School of Journalism, $2.6 million; and School of Music, $72,610.