In federal research, UA behind peers

School seeks to close spending gap

Joe Steinmetz, University of Arkansas chancellor, speaks Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, during a banquet at the The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in Fayetteville.
Joe Steinmetz, University of Arkansas chancellor, speaks Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, during a banquet at the The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Improving the technology in electric vehicles can cut fuel costs greatly, said Alan Mantooth, an electrical-engineering professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

He's the deputy director of a National Science Foundation-funded collaboration studying ways to design electronics that pack lots of power into confined spaces. "Billions of dollars of impact" could result if the technology can be put to more efficient use in electric cars, trains and planes, Mantooth said.

The collaboration, announced last year and led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is "probably the most prestigious [National Science Foundation] award that we've ever won as a university, period," Mantooth said.

Five years ago, UA joined a group of what are now 115 doctorate-granting institutions with the highest possible research designation in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. No other Arkansas university is classified on the same level as UA.

Yet the university lags behind peers in other states when it comes to federal research, according to survey data published by the National Science Foundation. Boosting research is a priority for Chancellor Joe Steinmetz as it has been for previous UA leaders, with attracting and retaining top talent seen as key for the school's research mission that has been described by Steinmetz and others as a way to help the state's economy.

"The 21st century is an innovation economy, and we have to be competitive in that," said Jerry Adams, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas Research Alliance, a public-private partnership that works to recruit researchers to the state.

The most recent data from the university suggest an increase in grant activity. The school in September announced a record year for research funding, with $101.7 million for the 12-month period that ended June 30. The total, made up of funding won at the Fayetteville campus and the UA System's Agriculture Division, included $64.7 million in federal support, according to UA.

Data from previous years on dollars spent show a gap between UA and similar public schools, however.

UA's $34.3 million in federal research expenditures in fiscal 2015 were less than expenditures at public large universities in nearby states, such as the University of Mississippi's $60 million and Louisiana State University's $83.6 million, according to survey data.

Research dollars come from a variety of sources, and a breakdown of UA's total research expenditures of $133.7 million -- which top the University of Mississippi's $94 million but are less than Louisiana State's $281.2 million -- shows a greater proportion of state and local government research funding compared with other sources.

"All funding is good but federal funding is a more recognized indicator of research activity by our peers," Jim Rankin, UA's vice provost for research and development, wrote in an email.

UA's distribution of research funding is unusual. Among more than 100 institutions reporting at least $130 million in total research expenditures in fiscal 2015, UA is one of only four nationally to spend more state and local government dollars on research than federal funds.

The university, in fiscal 2015, totaled $52 million in state and local government research expenditures. Of that total, $45.9 million, or 88 percent, was spent on "life sciences" research, defined to include agricultural sciences in the National Science Foundation's Higher Education Research and Development Survey.

"Some faculty that conduct basic research are more likely to find funding from federal agencies. Faculty conducting transportation research or education research are probably more likely to be funded from state agencies," Rankin said.

In addition to governmental research funding, the National Science Foundation's survey breaks down other sources of support. In fiscal 2015, UA spent $11.1 million on research funded by businesses and $1.5 million on research supported by funds from nonprofit organizations.

Grants sometimes require universities to provide matching funds, and UA also spent $31.8 million in institutional funds on research in fiscal 2015, according to the survey.

Federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, provide support for universities to conduct research leading to "fundamental knowledge," said Lauren Lanahan, an assistant professor of management at the University of Oregon.

Lanahan has studied the importance of this funding. If the goal is to grow total research dollars, "there is this domino effect, of sorts," Lanahan said, with her work showing that research funding from nonfederal sources tends to increase as federal dollars appear.

Grant awards typically go to individuals, making recruitment of faculty members a key part in efforts to boost research.

Demand is high for researchers who show promise, Rankin said.

"Other universities all start looking to see how they can recruit you to their school," Rankin said.

Over the past two years, UA has given out awards to 21 faculty and staff members to honor them for their work in winning research grants.

Three faculty members in the group have since left UA for other universities, including David Zaharoff, a cancer researcher who won more than $3 million in competitive state and federal grant awards from the time he joined UA in 2009 until his departure in August.

In an email, Zaharoff told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he accepted a position in North Carolina to be closer to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, where he said he hopes to push his work into clinical studies.

He also received a pay increase, now earning $150,000 in a joint appointment at two universities, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, according to a spokesman. Zaharoff earned $127,419 at UA.

Rankin said UA is now more " proactive" in efforts to keep faculty members from leaving, with dinners and talks about ways to obtain more resources for a researcher's laboratory.

Enhancing the university's research mission is one of eight guiding priorities for the university under the leadership of Steinmetz, the university's chancellor since Jan. 1.

"New ideas and disruptive technologies begin with basic research, scholarship and creative activities that are supported and nurtured on college campuses and make the world a better place to live," Steinmetz said at his October investiture ceremony.

Steinmetz said he wants to identify "signature areas where some additional investment can make us excel as an institution." He said it's important to nurture local companies built upon university research.

"These businesses have great potential to stimulate economic activity and also create jobs," said Steinmetz, who also has said he will work to boost faculty pay.

Rankin said research contributes to the economy in part through the students who help work on projects.

"There's a transfer of knowledge to the students, and as they graduate, they're taking that out to the local economy," Rankin said.

Mantooth, deputy director of what's called the Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal Systems center, said UA became involved in the collaborative effort to establish the center in part because of his experience.

"We wound up as part of this group through my connections, basically," Mantooth said. But the university's power electronics test facility, which opened in 2008, also helped the group win the National Science Foundation award, he added.

"It's not just expertise, it's expertise coupled with facilities," Mantooth said.

The total award of $18.5 million also set aside funds for outreach in nearby schools, he said.

"We did some course work with local area teachers to have impact on science and engineering at the middle school and high school level," Mantooth said.

The group also is working with companies including Caterpillar, John Deere, Tesla and Toyota, Mantooth said.

"That would take the results of what we do and put it into action," Mantooth said.

A Section on 11/28/2016

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