UMass Magazine Online

Fall 2003

Departments

Around the Pond

Features

Experiencing Jeff Corwin

Drawing on the past

Clean-up at the old Davis Mine

Around the Pond

Passing the $100 million milestone




	TALKING IT UP: UMass President Jack Wilson, on hand for the October 1 press conference.

COMPETITION IS FIERCE FOR THE largest and most prestigious National Science Foundation grants, so $17 million in federal funding for CASA represents “an enormous recognition” for UMass Amherst, according to Fred Byron, vice chancellor for research, graduate education and economic development. Additionally, Byron says, the size of this project’s total funding package – $40 million over the next five years, or an average of $8 million annually – is part of a dramatic upward trend for the university.

“This past fiscal year, the year that ended June 30, the university’s external funding portfolio passed the $100 million mark for the first time,” Byron says. “We brought in $103.6 million, up 11 percent from the previous fiscal year. Over the past nine years, we have doubled our external funding.”

Those numbers are even more impressive, in Byron’s view, considering that budget cuts have been reducing the size of the faculty in recent years. Even with fewer professors applying for grants, the campus has been able to achieve a steady growth in its support from federal, state, corporate and foundation sources. And there is good reason to expect the funding increases to continue, Byron adds. “The faculty’s being very aggressive in going after external support. Last year we saw a 22 percent increase in funding proposals. I’m sure that will have a significant impact on our numbers for this fiscal year.”

Byron refers to CASA as “a bellwether for the future,” not only on account of the sheer size of the grant, but also because of the interdisciplinary nature of the project. “The important problems that society faces will increasingly require very broad collaborations among different disciplines,” he says. “The simple problems have already been solved. The biggest opportunities in the future are going to be interdisciplinary in nature.”

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