University of Memphis faculty won a record-setting $50.2 million in research awards in the last fiscal year.
The new total beat last year’s record of $40.7 million, up 23.2 percent. Research award dollars have risen steadily at U of M since 2018.
Back then, about 20 percent of the school’s faculty were responsible for 75 percent of research proposals. In the 2021 fiscal year, 38 percent of the faculty brought in 75 percent of the research awards.
In 2018, U of M began a strategy to increase research awards. The new push hopes to earn the school Carnegie R1 status, the highest rank among institutes of higher education.
Federal grants have been the fastest-growing category in the U of M research mix. These grants have grown by 80 percent since 2019, up from $20 million to just over $35 million this year.
The top three federal contractors of U of M research last year were the National Science Foundation ($8.9 million), National Institutes of Health ($6.5 million), and the U.S. Department of Education ($5.1 million).
“We must celebrate the hard work of our research faculty across campus,” said Jasbir Dhaliwal, U of M executive vice president for research and innovation. “Federal research awards are nationally competitive so these achievements are truly remarkable. Our efforts to build a cutting-edge research culture are starting to pay off and this bodes well for the future.”
State-funded dollars rose here by 150 percent since last year. This figure was pushed largely by $5.6 million in grants from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. However, $4.9 million of that money was invested last year in the Keep Tennessee Beautiful program housed at the U of M. It was the single largest grant given to any U of M researcher in 2021.
To read more about the grants, check the school’s report here.