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Research figures boost UW step up in ranking

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The University of Wisconsin spends nearly $900 million in research annually and has claimed top positions in national research rankings, according to a National Science Foundation report released Thursday.

According to the report, UW spent nearly $832 million in 2006 in science and engineering research, and is No. 2 in the nation — behind Johns Hopkins University. UW also holds the top spot with $73 million for funding in the areas of education, business and humanities.

Research in science and engineering climbed $35 million from 2005 to 2006, and UW moved from third place up to second.

Martin Cadwallader, vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school, said UW has constantly ranked high in research funding, and he is glad to have outpaced universities like Michigan and UCLA, adding it "always feels good."

"In fact, it means we're No. 1, because Johns Hopkins has a lot of classified research, which we don't do on this campus," Cadwallader said.

Positioned atop the rankings, John Hopkins University conducts $1.5 billion in research, including $709 million spent at the Applied Physics Laboratory, an affiliate of the university that focuses on defense and military-related research.

Research funding applies to a multitude of applications around campus, according to UW Chancellor John Wiley.

"Once the money is here on campus, it funds an awful [lot] of salaries, graduate teaching assistants, hourly wages, a lot of this money gets out in the community," Wiley said. "It has a huge economic impact on students and on the community, and we're very pleased to be up there."

Over the last six or seven years, Wiley said UW has lost nearly 200 faculty because there was no state funding to replace those who retired or left the university. He added the current 2007-09 budget is the best one UW has seen in six years, however, losing faculty also affects the university's chances to receive more private funding.

Additional faculty would provide extra funding, as each UW professor brings, on average, about $409,000 per year in research, Wiley said.

"If we get a grant for research in physics, we can't use that to hire another Spanish instructor, no matter how much we need one," Wiley said. "Even though we're getting a lot of state and private money, we still need base budget funding."

Currently, UW's biggest research effort is a $250 million project to build a neutrino telescope at the South Pole, which would provide knowledge about outer space, Cadwallader said.

The "IceCube" is a joint effort of several American and European universities, he added, with UW as the research leader.

"The money we get creates jobs on campus, and the research on campus creates jobs in the real world," Cadwallader said. "The university is a great investment of the state. It's part of the solution, not the problem."

Wiley added that UW has phenomenal, creative and competitive faculty and staff, and commended the university for its research efforts.