Oregon State University might be staring down revenue challenges in the athletics department after the disintegration of the Pac-12 Conference. But the university is doing just fine when it comes to researching funding.
OSU hauled in a record $480 million in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended June 30, the university said Tuesday.
A big jump in money from federal sources — from $294 million in 2022 to $426.7 million — drove the increase.
The university also noted a hefty increase in another key metric, research expenditures, which rose 23% to $367 million.
“Research expenditures have proven to be strongly indicative of impactful results,” Irem Tumer, OSU vice president for research, said in a statement. “Those expenditures are monies invested in laboratories and field work with the goal of advancing knowledge that helps make life better for people through greater health and resilience for communities, economies and the environment.”
No small potatoes
One of the university’s biggest grants was $50 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop soil-healthy and climate-friendly cropping practices for the Pacific Northwest potato industry. OSU is collaborating on the five-year project with the University of Idaho and Washington State University, as well as tribal nations, commodity groups and potato processing businesses on the five-year project.
That award helped push FY23 research funding for OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences to $114 million, a 30% increase over 2022 and a record for the college.
On the engineering front, researchers at the university won a $3 million federal grant to study battery technology that avoids the use of elements that could into short supply as electric vehicle adoption expands.
OSU is Oregon’s largest public university. Unlike some of its brethren, it’s been growing, according to a new survey by Business Journal data editor Brandon Sawyer.
