Research for Alaska

Daniel M. White, PhD

University of Alaska, Vice President for

Academic Affairs and Research

April 8, 2016

Latest Expenditures

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FY15 UA Direct Research Expenditures

Federal Total State / Direct Private, Local and Other / Direct

CEM Institute of Northern Engineering

10%

Central Managed Projects

7%

CNSM Natural Science and Mathematics 1%

College of Liberal Arts1%

Developmental Programs and Projects

4%

Geophysical Institute33%

Institute of Arctic Biology14%

International Arctic Research Center

8%

School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences

16%

School of Natural Resources and

Agricultural Sciences4%

University of Alaska Museum of the North 1%

UAF Other 1%

FY15 UAF REVENUES (IN THOUSANDS OF $) AS RESULT OF RESEARCH BY INSTITUTE

College of Arts and Sciences

24%

Environment and Natural Resources

Institute19%

Institute Circumpolar Health

4%

Institute of Social and Economic

Research23%

Justice Center10%

School of Engineering

4%

Social Work7%

UAA Other9%

FY15 UAA REVENUES (IN THOUSANDS OF $) AS RESULT OF RESEARCH BY INSTITUTE

University of Alaska Southeast

• $20.9 M grant portfolio (13 Federal agencies)

• Regional focus

• Statewide collaborator on many of the large system grants

• Partner with Juneau Economic Development Corporation (JEDC) – research clusters initiative– Southeast AK, as represented by the JEDC Research and

Development Cluster Working Group, was named a “Community of Excellence in Research” by SCoR

• Joint appointments with UAF and collaborate on support to MS/PhD students.

Anatomy of the Research Enterprise

• Faculty– Traditional academic faculty (tenured/tenure track)– Jointly appointed faculty (tenured/tenure track)– Research faculty (term)

• Research staff• Research support staff• Post-docs• Graduate students• Undergraduate students• Administrative support• Facilities and field support

Anatomy of the Research Enterprise

• Traditional academic faculty– 9 month workload for tripartite faculty

• 60% teaching, 30% research, 10% service – ADJUSTABLE• 60% teaching – 4 courses per year, graduate student

advising, undergraduate advising, individual study classes, new course development

• 10% service – department, college, University, professional service, community service

• Research – 30% of a 9 month contract to do research and scholarly activity. This is GF so this $/time can be used as in-kind match for Federal grants. May be used to write proposals, scholarly papers, applied or basic research and scholarly activity.

– 3 month summer contract (NGF) if grants and contracts can pay salary.

– Academic year buy-out of teaching time (NGF)

Research Enterprise

• Research Faculty

– Many models

• “Joint appointed” faculty: X% in a college, Y% in an institute – varies.

• Research faculty: 100% research, normally have some base funding (GF) of < 3 months in order to write proposals, University service, days off, etc.

• May teach on contract in departments

Research GF

• Research fraction of a jointly appointed faculty

• Base support in research faculty workload

• Administrative support (proposal/grant management/purchasing/travel)

• Facilities, equipment, O+M

Research budget

• Typical research project (w/fieldwork)– 1 month faculty $25k

– 2 months technician $25k

– 1 year graduate student salary $60k

– Supplies $10k

– Travel (incl. field) $20k

– Tuition $15k

– Equipment $50k

– F&A (50.5% of total direct costs) $70k

Total $275k

F&A

• Facilities and Administration– % negotiated by Office of Naval Research for all

Federal agencies. Research rates:– UAF 50.5%– UAA 51.2%– UAS 59.0%

• Other Sponsored Activity (educational) rates:– UAF 37.2%– UAA 33.0%– UAS 30.2%

– Not all agencies pay this• UA has separately negotiated rate with State of Alaska• USDA limits F&A (~10%)• Many foundations limit F&A (~ <10%)

– The effective ICR Rate statewide is 23%

F&A at UAF

Generating Unit 50%

OSP and CRS Match, 1%Student Research, 1%

Buildings8%

UAF Supporting

Units28%

UA Statewide12%

F&A at UAAUA, 13%

Library, 5%

Facilities, 13%

IT, 5%

Admin., 19%RGS, 9%

Units, 36%

F&A at UASSW Financial

Services12.8%

Administrative Services33.6%

Facilities, 10.0%

Department34.8%

Provost Office8.8%

Research Productivity

• With a $10M drop in research revenue that would equate to an additional $2.3M in support for research and contributions to power, library, undergraduate research, etc.

NGF Trend

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Research Productivity

• After peaking in FY11, UAF research expenditures have decreased 29%. NSF and NASA funding remains strong, but the end of ARRA funding, congressionally-directed funding for the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, the departure of the Agricultural Research Service from Alaska, and termination of other specific funding sources has led to this downward trend.

Research Productivity

• For the past year, an important factor is the loss of faculty positions, with a decrease of more than 30 positions with research responsibilities at UAF.

Research Productivity

• Last year $28M in GF went to research across the system…Plus that portion of traditional academic faculty workloads dedicated to research.

Research Productivity

• Research expenditures per Faculty

– UAA $30k, peers $5-11k

– UAF $211k, peers $116-136k

– UAS $13k, peers $0.3-10k

– Source: UAF Peer ratio analysis for FY 14 based on NCHEMS data

Research Productivity

Cuts % cut

Millions in GF lost to research if evenly distributed

Millions of NGF lost with 4:1 leveraging ICR lost

$325M 7 2 $8.2M $2M

$300M 14 4 $16.4M $4M

Research Productivity

Faculty FTE for research

Instr. FacRes FTE

NGF generated $/Faculty researchFTE ($, 1,000s)

UAA 25 (56% GF) 110 78.4

UAF 174 (37% GF) 115 326.9

UAS 3 (38%) 15 59.3

NGF Trend

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FY15 Grant Awards by University

• UAA

– 226 new awards, 36.5% of active grants

• UAF

– 224 new awards, 26.3% of active grants

• UAS

– 17 new awards, 33.3% of active grants

UA Eligibility and Obligations

Grants and contracts awarded to the universities normally require the university or the UA System to provide facilities, administrative support, and qualified faculty and staff for the duration of the grant. Many of the costs for these services are covered by the grants and contracts.

UA Eligibility and Obligations

• In addition to fiscal management, UA and its universities are also required to follow a large number of federal regulations pertaining to research. These are too numerous to describe in detail here, but include:– Regulations governing use and care of vertebrate animals in

research.

– Regulations governing human research.

– Regulations governing biosafety.

– Regulations on environmental health and safety.

– Regulations concerning research misconduct. •

•

Research for Alaska

Staying Competitive for Alaska

Staying Competitive for Alaska

ASSW

• Hosted at University of Alaska Fairbanks

• Meetings and events March 9-20, 2016

• Annual gathering of international organizations involved in Arctic research

• 2017 Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting

UA Expenditures in AK

• 88% of UA expenditures were made in Anchorage/Mat-Su and Interior regions

• 9% occurring in Southeast

• 2% in the Coastal region

• 1% in the Southwest and Northern regions

Several companies created based on UA

intellectual property are launching startups

to build new technology under SBIR and STTR

grants right here in Alaska.

Thank You