As Kansas University officials announced an uptick in research expenses during the last academic year, KU is looking for new ways to continue that momentum.
KU reported spending $207.1 million in external funding for research, development and training in the year ending June 2009, up about five percent from the previous year.
Steve Warren, vice provost for research and graduate studies, is chairman of a committee formed at the request of Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little to raise the levels of scholarly research done at the university.
The totals reflected expenses beginning to flow from some large grants — such as a $20.2 million National Institutes of Health grant for a research team led by Jeff Aube, professor of medicinal chemistry, Warren said. However, in order to keep moving forward, Warren said KU will try to raise the number of overall faculty participating in funded research projects.
“I think we can continue the momentum and I think we can expand it,” he said.
On the Lawrence campus, about half of the faculty generate externally funded grants, and while that number will never reach 100 percent — nor should it, he said — the task force is seeking ways to bring more faculty members into the fold.
In some cases, he said faculty members are in need of more time to engage in externally funded research, and in others, it’s a matter of a lack of experience.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that it’s not about the money,” Warren said. “What this is really about is the discovery and implementation of knowledge.”
He said ongoing research at KU continues to make a difference in the world, including through its cancer-related drug development and discovery efforts and a project to measure the thickness of ice sheets.
Comments
parrothead8 8 years, 3 months ago
"More runaway liberal spending making a difference in the worlds of those poor taxpayers who have to fund it…..", said the guy who apparently didn't read the article telling him that taxpayers didn't pay for the stuff he's complaining about, but that it came from "external funding."
akuna 8 years, 3 months ago
Lawrenceguy40,
It must be easier to bash science than to Google a few keywords... If you read the CReSIS web site, you'll "find the answers to your questions." https://www.cresis.ku.edu/
Oh, and the misuse of quote marks is intentional, brainiac.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 8 years, 3 months ago
It must be comforting, lawrenceguy, to have your talking points so well memorized that rote recitation has replaced the need for rational thought (assuming you ever had any.)
jgaznative 8 years, 3 months ago
Not every faculty member can bring in the big bucks. Humanities profs (many who do outstanding work without financial backing) do not have the same access to major $ like the scientists do. Its hard to believe Warren when he says it's not about money. LJW articles that mention "KU research" only refer to money and science.
nobody1793 8 years, 3 months ago
"It must be easier to bash science than to Google a few keywords... "
No, he is not allowed to use Google, because Google was started as a research project at Stanford. :\
Tim Quest 8 years, 3 months ago
EDUKAYSHUN IZ FER LIBRUL DUMMIES!
Hawkdad 8 years, 3 months ago
"Hundreds of millions spent to tell us things we don't need to know."
How exactly do we know what we don't need to know? Are the conservatives dictating what we need to know and what we don't need to know now? That is just about the most ignorant, foolish, and downright dangerous statement I've heard in awhile. Let's all be illiterate, flea-bitten, morons living in caves. Why do we need to know anything?
parrothead8 8 years, 3 months ago
lawrenceguy40 (anonymous) says... parrothead - who exactly funds the National Institutes of Health? Please tell me. I look forward to hearing your reply.
Sorry, I totally forgot about this thread. Sure, the NIH is federal-taxpayer funded, but that NIH grant accounted for less than 10% of the external funding KU received. You latched right on to that 10%, didn't you? I didn't hear you talking about the other 90%.
According to a press release when the NIH grant was announced, it will be used so that KU can join "a high-level network of institutions in the search for molecules that can fight disease and advance human health." But who needs to fight disease and advance human health, right?
I'll tell you who. You. Me. Everyone. Most people in good health say they don't want to be kept alive by machines, but when most people are on the brink of death they change their minds. Spare no expense! Whatever it takes! Keep me alive!
But it costs more then. Not spending money on medical research now is like never changing the oil in your car. One day, it's going to cost a lot. Well, consider that $20,200,000 grant an insurance policy against major repairs in the future. The cost to each of the 2.8 million residents of Kansas? A little over 7 bucks. How many lives have to be saved for it to be worth it? How much is your life worth?
You're right. KU should disappear. Kansas doesn't need any of the teachers, doctors, nurses, or engineers that come out of KU.
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