According to figures recently released by the state, UB ranked near the top of both public and private colleges and universities in New York state in academic research and development funding for the year 2000.
UB led SUNY schools with expenditures of $187.7 million, and placed fourth in the state overall, trailing only top-spenders Cornell University, Columbia University and the University of Rochester, respectively. New York University ranked fifth, behind UB.
"I think we are in a new day with respect to our research support," said Jaylan Turkkan, UB vice president for research. "This really marks the beginning of UB's ascendancy as a first-rank research institution."
The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) released the rankings after reviewing a nationwide study conducted by the National Science Foundation.
"This funding of [research and development] by our prestigious, world-class colleges and universities will continue to foster the growth of the state's high-technology economy," stated Russell Bessette, executive director of NYSTAR. "Innovations made on campus today will eventually turn into job-creating technologies of tomorrow."
UB upped research and development spending by $20.9 million in 2000, a 12.5 percent increase from the previous year.
Although $96 million of federal government funds constituted most of UB's spending, state and local governments furnished an additional $6.7 million. Average contributions from state and local governments to New York state colleges and universities increased to two-and-a-half times the national mean in 2000.
Of UB's research expenditures in 2000, $48.5 million came from internal sources and $5.6 million came from a number of private firms, including IBM, Compaq and Sun Microsystems. The remainder, $30.7 million, came from unspecified sources.
Institutions with medical schools dominated the top nine positions. Medical schools often receive grants from the National Institute of Health, a federal agency whose budget Congress recently doubled, said Turkkan.
Jim Denn, a spokesman for NYSTAR, noted that the figures account only for 2000 spending, pointing out that the awards and activities from Gov. George Pataki's $1 billion Centers of Excellence initiative are scheduled for release in 2001-2002 and have not yet been calculated into university research expenditures.
UB recently cooperated with the governor to found a Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics with $200 million in state-backed and private sector funding. The center is one of three in the state, and aims both to invigorate the Western New York economy and increase research funding through the creation of high-tech jobs in biotechnological research.
UB Provost Elizabeth Capaldi emphasized the faculty's role in acquiring research dollars for the university.
"This is a comment on the quality of our faculty," Capaldi stated in an e-mail. "Sponsored research dollars are awarded in national competition and having a large amount means we did well competing with the best [professors in the nation]."
