Ohio State University spent $1.24 billion on research in fiscal 2021, vaulting it three years ahead in President Kristina Johnson's 10-year plan to double 2020's expenditures.
The 28% growth from the previous record of $968 million the year before came from both organic growth and improved data gathering in responding to the National Science Foundation’s annual Higher Education Research and Development survey, the Office of Research reported to trustees Wednesday.
OSU would leap into the top 10 institutions in the country for research expenditures when compared to fiscal 2020 data, when Harvard and Stanford universities spent $1.2 billion each, according to NSF data. Results from the nationwide 2021 survey won't be published until November or December.
"For every dollar of research expenditure in a community, it leads to spinoffs, it leads to patents, it leads to health and well-being," Johnson said in a teleconference interview.
"Something I’ve learned as president here: The quality and excellence with our faculty, students and staff – we’re sort of hiding our lantern under a bushel," she said. "We need to talk about that, because success breeds success."
Federal grant funding increased by 7.7% in 2021, to $580 million. The biggest leap was in internal funding, such as purchases of lab equipment, to $400 million from $150 million. Johnson increased that budget last year, including a presidential seed funding program to researchers. But the school also more thoroughly counted such spending for this year's NSF report, which makes comparisons to past years more difficult.
Winning highly competitive federal grants "means we have the best researchers in that particular topic area," Johnson said. And those researchers in turn are enlisted as reviewers for scientific journals, giving them a window into what's going on across their fields.
"You're helping set the research agenda for the whole country," she said.
Last year Johnson set a goal of doubling 2020's expenditures to more than $1.9 billion by 2030 – achievable with 7% annual growth on average. That would have made the FY21 target $1 billion.
Growth is continuing halfway into fiscal 2022. Medical research alone is trending 20% higher than last year, Dr. Andy Thomas, chief clinical officer of OSU's Wexner Medical Center and senior associate vice president of health sciences, told medical center trustees Tuesday.
Several huge federal wins in fiscal 2021 provide predictable income over several years, so long as researchers are complying with terms of their grants. OSU was awarded multi-year contracts for interdisciplinary research in areas such as artificial intelligence, traumatic brain injury and a new field of study applying machine learning to analyze data from images of living organisms.
"How much we can create knowledge, discover new knowledge, and translate research results into … societal impact is very much a part of our land-grant mission," said Grace Wang, executive vice president for the Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge.
Legislation pending in Congress would greatly increase federal research spending, Johnson said. It would set up ambitious innovation goals in regional hubs such as for clean energy and cancer treatment and prevention.
"With this kind of funding to keep America globally competitive in research we need to bring our expertise to the table," Johnson said. "You need to get people to think differently about every component of the system. This is something Ohio State has always done."
Johnson praised the resilience and persistence of faculty and staff to compete for grants and continue work even when it was tough to get to labs during the pandemic.
"It is tough to get research done during a time of Covid when you’re working remotely," she said. "They continue to write proposals, because they knew at some point this Covid either will end or become endemic."
