Though UF is facing deep academic budget cuts of ,20 million to ,30 million, the university received a record amount of research funding in 2007, according to a UF press release.
The release stated that the ,583 million UF received for research during the 2007 fiscal year was increased from the ,518 million received in 2006. The funding was bolstered by increases in both state and federal financial support.
Though the ,361 million in federal funding accounts for the majority of UF's research money, state funding saw the largest increase. The ,93.4 million Florida gave for UF research was a 92 percent raise over 2006.
The release stated that UF's Health Science Center attracted the lion's share of the funding with ,316.8 million, with ,259.5 million of that going to the College of Medicine alone.
About ,138 million for research came from the National Institutes of Health, which is UF's largest sponsor.
At Thursday afternoon's State of the University Address, UF President Bernie Machen lauded several specific projects.
Machen said the state provided ,8.5 million for two new Centers of Excellence 7 the Florida Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Center for Bio-Nano Sensors. In addition, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute gave ,1.1 million toward a research-mentoring program that's being developed by zoology professor Lou Guillette.
UF spokesman Steve Orlando said the support of national institutes such as the NIH, the HHMI and the Department of Defense strengthens the image of UF's research.
Outside of research funding, UF's financial outlook for academics is not so optimistic. Machen announced at a Board of Trustees meeting in June that UF would need to cut ,20 million to ,30 million of its budget to stay out of the red until the Tuition Differential Program begins in fall 2008.
The program will allow UF and two other Florida public universities to incrementally increase tuition up to 40 percent over the next four years.
But Orlando said state funding for UF's academic programs is not related to state funding for research. Those budgets must remain separate, he said.
"Research money comes from specific agencies to carry out specific research," Orlando said. "We can't take that money and pay the light bill."
