By Joel Blumenthal
On several occasions, President Karen R. Hitchcock has challenged University at Albany faculty and staff to ramp up University research activities so that UAlbany will be able to attain Carnegie Research University I status in the near future.
Vice President for Research Christopher F. D�Elia said he was ready to meet that challenge when he came on board last year. A major way to help meet the challenge, he said, is to encourage and help UAlbany researchers pursue federal funding more aggressively and strategically — to maximize success rates in grant applications, achieve larger awards, strengthen research programs, and develop new interdisciplinary collaborations.
And the �fit� between the research that the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds and the research that UAlbany faculty conduct is, to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart at the end of �Casablanca,� so close that it �could be the start of a beautiful relationship.�
Established in 1950, the NSF is an independent U.S. government agency with a unique mission: to strengthen the overall health of U.S. science and engineering across a broad and expanding frontier.
Though it operates no laboratories itself, NSF makes merit-based grants and cooperative agreements and provides other forms of support to educators and researchers in all 50 states and in the U.S. territories. NSF sees its role as supporting projects that:
- build and communicate a deep and broad fundamental science and engineering knowledge base;
- develop a diverse, internationally competitive and globally engaged scientific and engineering workforce; and
- provide a broadly accessible, state-of-the-art science and engineering infrastructure.
NSF supports education and training at all levels, from pre-kindergarten through career development; promotes public understanding of science, mathematics, engineering and technology; and helps ensure that the U.S. has world-class scientists, mathematicians and engineers.
Competition for NSF awards is intense. Of the approximately 30,000 proposals NSF receives each year, only about one-third are funded. And NSF�s budget always has been small, compared to those of other federal agencies that sponsor research.
From federal FY 1997 to 2000, for example, NSF�s budget increased from $3.4 billion to just under $4 billion, while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget grew from $12.7 billion to $17.8 billion. For FY 2001, President Clinton has proposed a 17 percent increase for NSF, to $4.57 billion, and a 5.6 percent increase for NIH, to $18.8 billion.
Its 50th anniversary materials boast that NSF is �where discoveries begin.� And those discoveries cover a wide range of territory. All but one of the last 15 Nobel Prize winners was a NSF grantee prior to winning the award. In 1999, no fewer than seven of the approximately 30 MacArthur Foundation �genius award� winners had previously received an NSF grant — and many MacArthur winners do not even work in academe.
NSF�s Engineering Directorate funded a five-year study by engineers, geologists and social scientists that noted how natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes cost the U.S. half a billion dollars a week — and recommended how those losses can be reduced in the future.
The average NSF award is $73,000. At UAlbany, active NSF-funded research currently totals about $10 million — with the amounts for specific grants ranging from $3,000 (to the Department of Chemistry�s Ramaswamy Sarma) to $1 million (to Sharon Dawes, director of the Center for Technology in Government) and $1.3 million for Dan Wulff�s project to train high school science teachers how to teach science research techniques.
Biologists Colin Izzard and John Schmidt were able to obtain a confocal laser scanning microscope and image analysis system that will be used by cell and molecular biologists and neurobiologists and their students, with a $434,000 NSF award in 1998.
Physicist William Lanford received $480,000 from NSF to develop a compact, broad range magnetic spectrometer; anthropologist Robert Jarvenpa and archaeologist Hetty Jo Brumbach traveled to Finnish Lapland to study gender roles in herding and managing reindeer, thanks to a $204,500 NSF award.
Chemist Harry Frisch received $423,000 over five years for preparing new interpenetrating polymer blends; sociologist John Logan received $323,000 to study residential and labor force positions of ethnic and racial groups in New York City and Chicago between 1900 and 1920; and atmospheric scientists Lance Bosart, John Molinari, Wei-Chyung Wang, Vincent Idone, Mark Kritz and Qilong Min all are listed as principal investigators of active NSF awards ranging from $57,000 to nearly $600,000.
There is much opportunity for even more UAlbany success at NSF, D�Elia noted in an interview last year. UAlbany has long been strong in public policy research and the social sciences. As the neurosciences take hold and East Campus biomedical research grows, the funding opportunities grow, too.
At the same time, biomedical research offers much promise for society. New discoveries in pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tests and biomaterials can lead to better ways to fight disease. There is great opportunity in this field for collaboration. In addition, new pharmaceuticals mean new products for businesses.
�As partnerships and collaborations develop with other institutions, our region will benefit tremendously: the collaboration of state agencies, RPI, Albany Medical College, and Albany College of Pharmacy will give a critical mass of regional capability in biotechnology that will be world-class,� D�Elia said in a previous interview.
�With our capabilities in biology, psychology and public health, we are well-positioned to develop exceptional interdisciplinary programs in this area,� D'Elia said. �The ramifications are astounding, the potential benefits to humankind are enormous, and the dollars needed to support research in this area are growing.�
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