Boston University students have another number to brag about when writing home this fall.
According to a report released this summer, BU’s total federal funding for research increased 13.7 percent, reaching $171.4 million in 2002, the most recent year for which information is available.
The total federal funding for schools nationwide increased by 13.6 percent, according to the Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges.
The report, compiled by the National Science Foundation ranked BU 40th nationally in federal funding, between Vanderbilt University and the University of Florida.
Among BU’s neighbors in Boston, Harvard was ranked 11th just ahead of MIT at 12, while Northeastern University was listed at 159th.
BU spokesman Colin Riley said the report illustrates the strength of BU’s research.
“It shows our faculty members are being successful in seeking grants,” Riley said. “It’s reflective of the quality and caliber of their work.”
Though she did not have exact figures, Carol Simpson, Research and Graduate Education associate provost, said the increase was part of an extended period of growth in BU research.
“We did equally well last year and even better this year,” Simpson said. “We’ve been on a steepening trajectory for the last five years.”
Riley did not have a figure for the total federally funded research expenditures in 2003, but he said the total for all grants and contract awards was $311.3 million, up from $276.6 million in the 2002 fiscal year.
Riley said BU researchers were awarded a total of 1,575 grants and contracts in 2003, up from 1,505 the previous year.
Chemistry professor James Panek, who worked on a team recently awarded a $10.6 million grant for a Center for Chemical Methodology and Library Development, said applying for a grant is a 10-month process that begins by “identifying a problem in your scientific community and proposing a solution.”
Panek said the process has become simpler because budget-related bureaucracy is streamlined. He added that the review process – which ultimately decided whether a grant is awarded – has not changed.
Research will soon have a much more physical presence on campus, as the new Life Science and Engineering Building nears completion.
Simpson said nearly all of the research conducted in the new building will be federally funded, either by NSF or the National Institutes of Health.
She added that she predicts a dramatic spike in BU’s federal funding if a proposed $120 million bio-containment lab is built.
Funding for the lab – called the National Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases and Biodefense – has been approved, but negotiations with the Boston are still underway, Simpson said.
The university began putting more emphasis on research in the 1990s, she said. She added that the growth in the NSF report is a manifestation of that effort.
BU has mainly focused on biomedical engineering, interdisciplinary research in life sciences and, more recently, nano-scale technology.
Ultimately, however, it is individual faculty and departments that apply for grants, Simpson said. She credited a strong faculty and collaborative efforts for the growth.