The university managed to rake in about $640 million in research awards this year, despite the effects of the federal automatic budget cuts to funding.
“We have a really good faculty who are very competitive in securing spots in research grants,” said David Norton, UF’s vice president for research.
Federal funding accounts for about 65 percent of UF’s research funding, Norton said.
“We did see some decreases in support from many of the federal agencies,” he added. “Our funding from industry was up this year, so that helped.”
In 2012, UF brought in $644 million, and in 2013 the number dropped less than 1 percent. Health sciences bring in roughly half of this, Norton said.
Students like Sylvia Lai, a 20-year-old English senior, said hearing the news made her proud of UF.
“This is how we’re going to move forward as a university,” she said. “This is how we’re going to innovate and be creative.”
However, she believes that research funds could be spread out a little more evenly.
“Research isn’t just important in science or math, it’s important for a lot of different majors,” she added. “It will really help us develop our programs.”
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 8/28/2013 under the headline "UF awarded $640M in research"
