Grants flow to University of Maryland, College Park

More outside research dollars than ever before flowed into the coffers of the University of Maryland, College Park, last fiscal year, with the $407 million in grants outstripping the previous year's sum by 14 percent, or $57 million.

The grants, mostly from federal and private sources, are earmarked for various faculty research projects, from studying the effects of microscopic plant life on climate change to examining foreign languages.

University officials hope the boost will raise the profile of the university in the minds of private donors, potential students, faculty members and, particularly, state policymakers.

To help patch Maryland's structural deficit, the state has cut $12 million from the University System of Maryland's fiscal 2008 budget of $1.04 billion. More reductions could come for fiscal 2009 as well.

The outside grants go to specific research projects and are no substitute for the state money that funds the school's general operations, said Brian Darmody, associate vice president for research and economic development at College Park.

Last fiscal year, the school received $370.7 million from the state's general fund. For fiscal 2008, the state allocation is $396 million.

Still, the increase could remind policymakers of the school's accomplishments and encourage private donors such as alumni to give, Darmody said.

The research funding increase "makes people prouder, gives some impetus for people to write checks," he said. "Those are dollars we're trying to raise as well as working with the state to try to minimize the impact of the cuts. "

A higher profile for the school also can help faculty compete more effectively for grants to win even further research dollars, said Raghu Murtugudde, an associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic science at the school.

"Even though the proposals are always reviewed individually ... the reputation of a particular center as doing good research always helps," said Murtugudde, whose work includes examining how phytoplankton, the microscopic plant life in the ocean, can affect the earth's climate.

"You belong to a good group by being good," he added. "That's the assumption. "

Murtugudde is part of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, founded in 1999 to unite various disciplines across the school for the study of the cause and effect of climate change.

In June, the center received one of the large block grants that helped boost the university's numbers for the year. NASA awarded the center a $13 million, four-year grant to support its 90 faculty, research assistants and graduate students.

The center, known as ESSIC, is the kind of multidisciplinary initiative the university has used to boost its outside research funding, said Darmody.

In an effort that began as early as 1988, when the university system was formed, the school has worked to ease the process of uniting professors from various departments and various institutions, both within the system and in the federal and private sectors.

Funders increasingly are looking for such interdepartmental collaborations, Darmody said. The school has been communicating with faculty about opportunities for partnering between the disciplines, including study subjects that could benefit from such work.

The school also offers faculty members incentives such as larger shares of the overhead funding associated with outside grants, to go toward buying new lab equipment or expanding lab staffs.

And then there is the incentive that comes built-in to the grants, the chance to advance the science, Darmody added.

"If they're winning awards, they get a sense of momentum, a sense of optimism," he said.

But beyond meeting personal scientific goals, the accomplishments of the entire university do trickle down to the professors and their students, Murtugudde added.

"It's like playing for the Yankees," he said.