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Indiana University faculty and researchers secured $772 million in total sponsored research awards in 2023, the university plans to announce Tuesday.
The total marks a $42 million increase over the previous year and includes research funding for health initiatives, drug treatments and efforts to enhance civics education.
IU said its total represents the most any research university in the state received in 2023. A sponsored research award is funding from an external entity such as a private foundation, corporation or governmental agency for a specific research project with defined parameters.
IU President Pamela Whitten is expected to release more details on Tuesday in an announcement to staff, faculty and students.
The announcement comes as the state’s flagship university prepares to officially transition IUPUI to IU Indianapolis in July. Nearly one-third of the $772 million secured in research funding went to IUPUI staff and faculty, the university said.
Among the funding IU researchers received last year included $38 million to research ways to improve positive health outcomes in Indiana, $2.4 million from the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts to research music-based treatments for chronic pain, and nearly $7 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to establish the Center for Cannabis, Cannabinoids and Addiction with the goal of finding new therapies to treat drug addiction.
Other projects included:
— Two U.S. Department of Defense awards totaling $11.7 million to fund Indianapolis research on discovering a drug treatment for hydrocephalus, a condition commonly associated with complications from traumatic brain injury that causes cerebrospinal fluid to accumulate in the brain.
— A three-year, $5.7 million grant from the Department of Defense for the Center on Representative Government to enhance civics education and expand student interest in public service careers.
— National Endowment for the Humanities funding for Music Unwound, a national consortium that includes the Jacobs School of Music. The consortium promotes humanities-infused public programming in American classical music, with the goal of strengthening student and audience engagement.
The increase in funding in 2023 aligns with goals in the university’s IU 2030 strategic plan, which called for increasing the university’s research enterprise.
University officials announced plans in October to invest $111 million in new faculty, facilities, equipment and strategic initiatives focused on advancements in microelectronics and nanotechnology. The university is also committing $250 million to invest in biosciences that includes two new research institutes at IU Indianapolis.
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The “1/3rd of research funding” that went to IUPUI almost certainly doesn’t include IUSM sponsored research, which would make Indianapolis IU’s most productive research center.
Same story for years. Gotta do anything possible to protect the flagship status of Bloomington.
To expand on that, a pretty typical distribution of research funding within the IU system is as follows:
~1/3rd to IU Bloomington
~1/3rd IUPUI
~1/3rd to IUSM, which does the majority of its research in Indianapolis
Yes, Bloomington administrators typically obfuscate the numbers to hide the Bloomington campus research numbers, even going so far as to tie administratively the IUSM to Bloomington and separate it from the Indianapolis campus. It makes as much sense as lumping it all at the IUSM’s Muncie campus.
But, hey, for years West Lafayette bean-counters counted graduate degrees conferred in Indianapolis as West Lafayette-conferred degrees. Of course, their sleight of hand will end on July 1.
What is awarded in Indianapolis is very important for IUB because IUB Central Admin skims off large amounts of indirects from research grants through administrative taxes, fees, etc. It will be interesting to see how this is structured in the new IUI.