The University of Colorado at Boulder received more than $214 million in sponsored research awards for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, a record amount for the campus.
Of the thousands of grant proposals made by CU-Boulder faculty, researchers and students in the past decade, roughly half have been funded, said Larry Nelson, director of the CU-Boulder Office of Contracts and Grants.
"This has been a remarkably stable percentage over the past 10 years, which I think is indicative of the health and stability of our enterprise," Nelson said.
CU-Boulder received more than $204 million in sponsored research awards for the 1998-99 fiscal year, the first time the campus topped the $200 million mark.
"I considered the last fiscal year a milestone, so Im extremely proud of what our campus achieved this year," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard L. Byyny. "The credit for our continued success in this arena goes to our outstanding faculty, the same people who are deeply committed to teaching our undergraduate and graduate students."
About 85 percent of the sponsored research money was awarded directly or indirectly by federal agencies, Nelson said. The bulk of the rest came from foundations, corporations, private and non-profit agencies, institutes and the State of Colorado.
The primary federal agencies granting money to CU-Boulder in 1999-2000 included NASA and two affiliates, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Space Telescope Science Institute, which awarded campus researchers more than $65 million.
CU-Boulder also received about $31 million from the National Science Foundation, $27.9 million from the Department of Commerce and $24.8 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In CU-Boulder's College of Arts and Sciences, the chemistry and biochemistry department received roughly $10.9 million and the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department was awarded about $9.6 million. Both departments traditionally rank among the top academically in the nation.
The College of Engineering and Applied Science received about $35 million split up among the various departments and centers. Within the college, the aerospace engineering department received about $13.5 million, electrical and computer engineering was awarded about $5.5 million and civil, environmental and architectural engineering about $4 million.
In addition, the School of Education received nearly $3.7 million in sponsored research dollars and the College of Business and Administration received about $2.1 million.
About $10.5 million of CU-Boulder's sponsored research came from industry -- nearly double that of the last fiscal year -- and an additional $8.5 million came from miscellaneous sources such as foundations and associations.
The amount of sponsored research money received by the campus has been doubling every six to seven years since 1977, when CU-Boulder was awarded approximately $20 million, Nelson said.