FAYETTEVILLE -- An 11% increase in research spending boosted the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville two spots to 126th nationally in an annual National Science Foundation survey of research expenditures by institution.
The rankings rise continues a trend for UA-Fayetteville, while the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences saw its ranking hold steady at 141st nationally after two years of sliding downward. The National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development survey, released Wednesday, is based on research spending in fiscal 2018.
Major goals for both schools hinge upon research activity.
UAMS, in particular, needs to boost its federally funded research to succeed in having its Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute become a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, the university's top research officer, Shuk-Mei Ho, said in a phone interview.
UA-Fayetteville announced last November a $23.7 million "investment" from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. The money is aimed at helping recruit new researchers and bringing more discoveries to the marketplace.
In January, UA-Fayetteville leaders also announced three signature research areas. Having such signature areas is a way to encourage collaboration and help distinguish UA-Fayetteville from other institutions, university officials have said.
TOWARD GOALS
Shuk-Mei Ho began April 5 as UAMS' vice chancellor for research, arriving from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
She said she is passionate about research, and spoke about how -- if UAMS successfully makes its case -- a National Cancer Institute-designation would bring fresh research opportunities that also would benefit patients.
"That will really increase our research capacity, possibly doubling it, and also bringing in all kinds of new innovations and clinical trials," Ho said.
Before receiving such a "gold standard" designation, however, Ho said UAMS must increase its cancer-related grant money and federal grant money.
"We really have to elevate our federal grants," Ho said.
The National Science Foundation Survey showed total UAMS research spending increased by about 8% to $139.2 million in fiscal 2018, up from $128.5 million the previous year.
The survey breaks down spending by funding source, and showed UAMS also boosted its federally-funded research spending to $57.5 million in fiscal 2018, up from $51.3 million the previous year.
Referring to the $57.5 million annual total, "we need another $15-to-20 million of federal money," Ho said, calling that a rough estimate of what's needed.
State lawmakers have supported the UAMS push for a National Cancer Institute-designation, with $10 million going from the state this year to a UAMS fund established to help with that goal. Ho said no facilities in Arkansas, Mississippi or Louisiana have been so designated.
Ho described the $10 million from the state as largely helping with research efforts, including recruitment and facilities.
"We are extremely grateful to the legislature for giving us $10 million each year for the next seven years to promote this NCI-designation," Ho said.
The exact support amount in future years remains unsettled, however, a UAMS spokeswoman said.
A state law passed this year, Act 580, sets aside revenue from increased taxes on cigarette paper and certain medical marijuana taxes for a UAMS trust fund supporting efforts to gain a National Cancer Institute designation. This year, $10 million from the state's rainy-day fund went to the UAMS National Cancer Institute Trust Fund, said UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor.
"The hope is that the state will be able to contribute at least $10 million a year to support NCI Designation," Taylor said in an email. She explained that the trust fund "sunsets in 2027 if we have not achieved NCI Designation."
Ho -- who is paid a salary of $475,000, Taylor said -- said it's important to attract top researchers, citing the recent hire of Michael Birrer as director of the Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
In addition to the new state-supported fund, Ho said UAMS will need to find additional resources to meet its research-related goals.
"We will need a lot more support from various sources, like for examples from businesses, from large corporations, which is very typical where I came from, the University of Cincinnati," Ho said.
The National Science Foundation survey showed about $5.7 million in research funds coming from business in fiscal 2018. The survey listed about $53 million in UAMS institutional dollars spent on research, "which means the clinical system is subsidizing infrastructure and building up the latest technologies in order for us to get more federal grants," Ho said.
In past years, UAMS ranked 136th in research spending for fiscal 2016, 132nd in research spending for fiscal 2015 and 132nd in research spending for fiscal 2014.
Ho took over as top research officer from Larry Cornett, who Taylor said remains at UAMS as a professor and director of a biomedical research support organization known as Arkansas INBRE. Cornett previously earned $239,073 and now earns $229,073, Taylor said.
$175.5M AT UA
The National Science Foundation survey listed UA-Fayetteville's research spending as increasing to about $175.5 million in fiscal 2018, up from approximately $157.8 million the previous year.
UA-Fayetteville's ranking increased for the fourth consecutive year, now 10 slots higher than it was for fiscal 2014 spending.
"Since this ranking has been increasingly competitive, any improvement is welcome and encouraging, but I believe UA has great potentials to do even better in the years to come," Daniel Sui, UA's vice chancellor for research and innovation, said in an email.
The time period covered in the survey lags behind some university data, which Sui said shows "slightly lower" research expenditures for fiscal 2019, which ended June 30. He said a change in National Science Foundation reporting requirements led to the tick downward.
Sui noted that the most recently ended fiscal year also brought about the conclusion of what was known as the Arkansas PROMISE grant, which he described as a $35.7 million, five-year U.S. Department of Education grant supporting a program focused on disabled youth education and workforce skills.
Sui said it's "still a bit too early to assess the impacts" of the $23.7 million Walton grant supporting research.
"We are in the middle of a few new hires related to our signature areas, " Sui said. UA-Fayetteville's signature research areas -- reworded slightly since January -- are: Advancing the Data Revolution; Improving Human Health and Community Vibrancy; and Innovating a Resilient and Sustainable Future.
In the fiscal 2018 time period covered by the most recently published National Science Foundation survey, federally funded research accounted for about $53 million of the total research spending at UA-Fayetteville, up from about $46.5 million the previous year and more than double the fiscal 2014 total of $26.1 million in federally funded research.
"Increasing interdisciplinary collaboration through team-based projects has certainly played a very important role in in the significant increase in UA's federal funding," Sui said. He referred to recently announced award of $7.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense through what it calls its Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative.
The grant will help UA researchers Shui-Qing "Fisher" Yu and Gregory Salamo lead a team of researchers at four other institutions as they study night vision technologies.
UA-Fayetteville's total includes state support for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The survey listed $50.9 million in state and local government-funded research spending. Nikki Turner, UA-Fayetteville's director of sponsored programs financial compliance, said about $42.4 million went from the state to support research at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
UA-Fayetteville and UAMS are the state's only research institutions ranked in the top 300 in research spending, according to National Science Foundation survey data.
For some institutions ranked in the National Science Foundation survey, the research totals include a university and health science center.
But among large public universities in nearby states, UA-Fayetteville trailed the University of Kansas, which ranked 74th with about $339 million in research expenditures; Louisiana State University, ranked 81st with about $286.7 million in research spending; the University of Tennessee, ranked 90th with about $259.6 million in expenditures; the University of Missouri, ranked 93rd with about $256.2 million in research spending; and Mississippi State University, ranked 98th with about $244.1 million in expenditures.
UA-Fayetteville ranked higher than the University of Mississippi, which came in at 142nd with about $137.5 million in research spending.
Fourteen institutions topped $1 billion in research spending in fiscal 2018, led by Johns Hopkins University, with a $2.66 billion total that includes its Applied Physics Laboratory.
Metro on 11/16/2019