Iowa State sets third-straight research funding record; UI sees increase

IOWA CITY — Propelled by high-impact research — including one project targeting extreme wind events, like the storm that blasted Iowa on Monday — Iowa State University on Tuesday announced a third straight year of record research funding that for the second straight year topped $300 million.

The Ames campus’ research-specific funding reached $346.2 million for the budget year that ended June 30 — up $45 million or 15 percent from last year’s record $301.3 million and up $62 million or 22 percent from fiscal 2022’s record $284.2 million.

“Achieving a third consecutive record for sponsored research and growth in overall external funding strengthens Iowa State University as a national research powerhouse and leading land-grant university,” according to ISU President Wendy Wintersteen, who in 2022 pulled her institution out of the prestigious Association of American Universities — an invite-only group of North America’s most elite comprehensive research universities.

At the time, Wintersteen said her decision to leave was driven by an AAU inclination favoring institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.

“Iowa State has always been and will continue to be a renowned research university,” Wintersteen said at the time — reiterating that message Tuesday in unveiling the research funding record.

“This success is the result of our faculty and staff researchers’ excellence in securing competitive funds to address complex challenges, innovate solutions for business and industry and generate economic opportunities that benefit all Iowans.”

University of Iowa research

Although not a record, the University of Iowa on Tuesday announced its external research funding for the budget year that just wrapped reached $683.8 million — a 22 percent increase over last year’s $561 million but down slightly from $698 million in FY22 and $702.4 million in FY21.

Much of the research funding amassed by UI — which remains a member of the AAU and does have a medical school — is associated with its clinical and medicinal inquiry and larger health care operation. More than $177.3 million came from the National Institutes of Health, for example, the largest of any UI funding agency.

“Fiscal year 2024 marked the 45th year of National Institutes of Health funding for the UI’s training program in hematology,” according to a UI announcement of its 2024 funding, describing the hematology endeavor — for example — as a training initiative for young scientists pursuing careers as academic scientists and physician-scientists in hematology.

“The UI program received funding to train its first cohort of scientists in 1978,” the university reported. “To date, it has trained more than 141 people who have gone on to successful careers in academic medical centers, the NIH, American Red Cross, and private industry.”

Total external funding

The University of Iowa’s total external funding for the year that just ended — which includes not just research grants but contracts, business agreements, philanthropy, and COVID-related aid and stimulus — topped $811 million.

That total is up 15 percent over last year’s $704 million but below the $867 million in FY22 and $818 million in FY21. The universities’ external totals since fiscal 2020 have been buoyed by COVID aid and federal stimulus support — including UI’s $53 million in FY20; $112 million in FY21; and $43 million in FY22.

Iowa State’s total external funding for the most recent year increased 3 percent to $544.6 million from $530.5 million in fiscal 2023. Both of those totals were below the record $601.7 million in the 2022 budget year and the previous record $559.1 million in FY21.

None of the external funding reported Tuesday supports the campus’ operating budgets related to their educational missions, officials said. The main sources for their general education funds are still tuition revenue and state appropriations.

But, campus officials stressed, research and external funding is integral to their missions.

“The vision for Iowa State research is to foster human creativity, fuel innovation and forge new frontiers that enable our communities, partners, and stakeholders to flourish,” Iowa State Vice President for Research Peter Dorhout said in a statement. “The record research funding the university received in FY24 validates this vision.”

Key 2024 research

Among Iowa State’s notable research projects drawing external support in 2024 was an Iowa State professor’s leadership in designing and planning a center to study windstorms and their effect on buildings and infrastructure.

Supported by a four-year $14 million grant from the National Science Foundation, ISU aerospace engineering professor Partha Sarkar is leading a national team to study windstorms in an aim to engineer improvements to reduce structural damage.

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Iowa State’s record research funding included nearly $110 million from non-federal sources — including nearly $10.6 million from industry partner Roeslein Alternative Energy, supporting ISU professor Lisa Schulte Moore in leading a project to encourage more farmers to plant cover crops and perennial prairie grass.

“A potential incentive is demonstrating how harvested winter-hearty crops and grass can be processed into renewable natural gas,” according to Iowa State.

Among UI’s $129 million in support from private foundations and individuals in FY24 was $18 million from the nonprofit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute for a five-year project aimed at helping older adults with multiple chronic medical conditions manage high blood pressure.

UI pharmacy professor Korey Kennelty, who serves as vice chair for research and implementation science in the Department of Family Medicine, and UI professor Carri Casteel, director of the university’s Injury Prevention Research Center, are dual principal investigators on the project hoping to enroll more than 900 patients and partner with 60 primary care clinics nationally.

Clinical trials represent the biggest chunk of the university’s industry-funded projects — at $85 million.

But private sources also funded UI writers. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded fellowships to two UI faculty: Kaveh Akbar, associate professor and director of the undergraduate English and creative writing major, and Jamel Brinkley, assistant professor in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, landed two of fellowships from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com