Several academic research groups have recently sent letters to the White House Office of Science and Technology stating that universities are having difficulties dealing with the increasing costs of research.

“It’s a challenge for schools, public and private, to come up with the resources. The federal government is certainly invested heavily in this area and has a large stake in seeing research continue,” Tony DeCrappeo, associate director for the Council on Governmental Relations, said.

According to DeCrappeo, around 60 percent of academic research funding is federally funded. This figure has decreased from past years, when federal funding used to fund about 70 percent of research. The university component of funding increased from 10 percent 10 years ago to 20 percent today. Industries cover the remaining portion of research.

However, inequitable government policies make equal distribution of federal grant dollars within each agency difficult, according to DeCrappeo. Agencies are subjected to different government policies for funding, and uniform policies should be enacted, DeCrappeo said.

“There is a lot of variation in agency policy. There are different policies even within the same agency,” DeCrappeo said.

While funding decreased nationwide, federal funding of academic research increased at the University of Wisconsin, according to Dr. Martin Cadwallader, vice chancellor of research at the UW graduate school.

UW currently ranks third in the nation for research dollars and among the top 10 schools in producing patents, according to Cadwallader. Because of these achievements, UW continues to attract federal funding for academic research.

“The university is a growth machine because it creates jobs. Money is coming in from out of the state, and that helps with the budget deficit we’re experiencing,” Cadwallader said.

UW research projects are funded by a variety of means.

“It varies from college to college. The majority of College of Agricultural Life Sciences funding comes from competitive federal programs, grants from federal agencies, state agencies, industries, cooperatives and consumer commodity groups,” Margaret Dentine, associate dean for research at CALS, said.

All of these agencies give UW funding for their specific needs to improve current technologies or discover new innovations that will give UW funding to research a solution.

“Each agency has their own research needs. They can be quite varied. Some are interested in human health or other areas,” Dentine said.

CALS studies a number of areas within agriculture. For example, researchers are breeding improved crops to enhance their nutritional content. Another project focuses on the economics of rural communities and providing health care for rural families, Dentine said.

DeCrappeo and UW System spokesperson Erik Christianson agree that UW is a premier research institution.

“Most of the money in the UW System is given to UW-Madison because it’s a major research university, and that’s always been its focus,” Christianson said. “It’s one of the largest and best research universities in the nation, if not the world.”