Penn State Research Expenditures Reach Record High

For the third consecutive year, Penn State research spending has reached a new record high, the university announced on Monday.

Research expenditures for fiscal year 2018-19 topped $968 million, a $47 million increase over the previous year. That figure includes a record $593 million in federal funding along with $375 million in state, private and university funds.

Lora Weiss, incoming senior vice president for research, said in a statement that the Applied Research Lab played a large role in the growth, with a 13 percent increase in funding.

“It’s gratifying to see the continued confidence the Department of Defense has in our research,” Weiss said. “We deeply value the partnership we have built over the years, and we’re exceedingly proud of Penn State’s role in national security.”  

Over the past 10 years, Penn State’s research expenditures have grown by $188 million.

For 2018-19, federal funding increased by $31 million, including including a $16 million bump from the Department of the Navy, as well as increases from the Department of Health and Human Services and NASA. 

Research support from the commonwealth grew from $68 million to $73 million, while funding from industry, foundations and other sponsors held at $101 million.

Within the university, College of Engineering research funding rose 14% to $149 million; the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences increased 6% to $71 million; and the College of the Liberal Arts was up 10% to $40 million. 

Some federally-funded projects that involve cross-disciplinary research included $3 million from the National Science Foundation for a graduate program to study food-energy-water problems, the first $1.5 million of $8.1 million from the National Institutes of Health for work on personalized prediction and treatment of infectious disease, and the first $2.3 million installment of a $13.4 million award from NIH for using mobile technology to measure cognitive changes over the lifespan. 

Weiss said $202 million of research expenditures is from Penn State’s ‘own investment in research for the public good, an integral part of its land-grant mission,’ including funding for facilities and staffing that further allows researchers to compete for federal grants.