Research Messenger
Volume IV, Issue 1
August 4, 2009
The Bright Spot
We’re acutely aware of the financial struggles facing almost every sector of higher education today, and certainly those that SDSU is coping with. Against that backdrop, one component of our institution has thrived this year: our research-oriented faculty, and the Research Foundation that manages their financial and personnel affairs. Support here flows primarily from the one source that can simply print its way out of trouble, at least temporarily: the U.S. government.
Research Foundation
The Research Foundation (RF) emerged from the redevelopment effort in 2006 land-rich, cash-poor, and debt-bearing. The past year saw recovery. The RF sold several of its properties to SDSU in anticipation of a redesigned development zone, and oversaw the favorable settlement of a suit against the contractor of Fraternity Row for construction flaws that had cost millions in water damage. The cash from both sources brought debt relief, and with it, a refocusing of the RF on its original purpose of managing contracts and grants.
As the RF squeezed through its cash crisis and sought redirection, we conducted a thorough review of its operations. The conclusions informed recommendations that have brought a richer mix of extramural funds to SDSU: more from federal agencies that add beneficial indirect costs (F&A) to their grants, less from non-federal sources that are less apt to.
SDSU has negotiated an F&A rate of 49.5% with the federal government (DHHS), yet our historical collection rate on all awards has been about 15% (still, the highest in the CSU). Local (city, county) grants and contracts are often at 0%; training and construction awards, and grants from the U.S. Department of Education (an exception to the negotiated rate) are at 8%; foundations often limit F&A to 0-10%; the state of California typically pays 12-15%.
On SDSU's funding base of $100+ million, each percent of F&A generates $1 million for the RF to manage its operations, and reinvest in our faculty's research programs. Awards from the federal agencies are crucial to a positive outcome, yet often involve the sternest competition. Our extramural awards for the past year (see below) bear testimony to our faculty's success in this arena.
Results From 2008-09
Competitive funding for research reached a record high of $133,794,378 in the fiscal year ended June 30. This was driven by (1) a larger number of tenure-track faculty from hiring done in the middle of this decade, (2) a more aggressive research agenda across our faculty, and (3) the early infusion of stimulus package (ARRA) funds from the federal government.
Of nearly equal importance, F&A collection rose to $20,966,177 (18.6% of direct costs), also a record. This will permit the RF to provide 100% of its targeted return to faculty and deans, and to invest in SDSU's research programs at just the time when the recipients are most in need of these funds.
Prospects, Short and Long-Term
The outlook for research support is mixed. Immediate prospects remain bright, with a pulse of ARRA funding to add to the rising research activity of our faculty. Beyond that lie obstacles.
Our present incapacity to replace lost faculty will reduce the population that submits the proposals and carries out the scholarship; the demand that deans generate a curriculum with fewer faculty will place greater pressure on those remaining to divert their energies from research to instruction; decimated college budgets are forcing deans to withdraw support for research infrastructure, risking deterioration wherever the RF cannot compensate for the loss; support for the doctoral programs that drive a disproportionate amount of SDSU's scholarship and reputation is declining even as the cost of administering those programs rises with increasing fees; ARRA funds, whether or not they accomplish their stimulatory goal, will disappear in 18 months, to be replaced by a federal urgency to reduce debt, dimming prospects for higher research allocations, even from an administration sympathetic to the value of research.
But for now, we have this financial bright spot in a year that has offered all too few. It is critical to SDSU as an emerging research university that we continue to build on the past year's success, generating funds and productivity from our own efforts, even in an era of declining state resources and feckless politicians.
I wish you a 2009-10 rich in scholarship.
Thomas R. Scott
Vice President for Research
San Diego State University