UC Davis gets record $750 Million for research

DAVIS
October 31, 2012 11:55am

Research funding at the University of California, Davis, totaled nearly $750 million during the fiscal year that ended June 30, a record high for the university and an increase of about $65 million from the previous year's total, the university says Wednesday.

"This record funding for our campus underscores the strength and breadth of research at UC Davis," says Chancellor Linda Katehi. "But university research is about more than just new ideas. It translates into jobs, economic health and the long-term competitiveness of our state and nation."

The new total places the campus fourth in the University of California system in external research funding, up from fifth the year before. UC Davis has had the fastest growth of any of the 10 UC campuses in research funding since 1995.

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

• A $25 million, five-year program to improve food security in the developing world, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development

• $34 million from the National Institutes of Health to a consortium

including UC Davis for development of new mouse models of diseases

such as cancer, obesity and diabetes, a key step toward finding

better ways to prevent and treat these diseases

• $12 million from a joint program of the National Science Foundation

and the Japan Science and Technology Agency to further research into

generating biofuels from algae

• $5.6 million from the John Templeton Foundation to study the

psychology of gratitude

• $4.8 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fight child obesity in the Central Valley, and $4 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Center for Poverty Research

• $580,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study engagement of students and other audiences with classical music.

Much of the funding for basic research at UC Davis supports jobs for professional scientists, technical staff, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Research projects may also lead to commercially applicable technologies and startup companies. The UC Davis Office of Research filed 224 new invention disclosures with the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office in 2011-12, bringing UC Davis' total portfolio of inventions to 1,190. Since fiscal year 2003-4, 44

startup companies have been formed at UC Davis.