Iowa State pulled in more than $217 million in sponsored funding during the record-breaking 2001 fiscal year.

The university posted $217.7 million last year in sponsored funding, or funding that comes from external sources other than gifts and donations related to donors, said Jim Bloedel, vice provost for research administration.

It includes all contracts, grants and gifts received for research, educational projects, buildings, equipment and public service and extension activities.

“It’s the faculty that are key to sponsored funding,” Bloedel said. “They are under competition, both nationally and internationally, and our talented faculty do a great job.”

The three major categories of sponsored funding are research funding, education and public service and extension activities, Bloedel said. The overall funding in these three areas, based on competitive awards and federal initiatives, increased by 14 percent last year, he said.

“The sponsored funding doesn’t offset budget cuts,” Bloedel said. “As the number of faculty decreases with the budget cuts and we have more and more students, the sponsored funding helps Iowa State provide graduate and undergraduate students with experiences to enrich their educations with new projects and activities.”

Sources of sponsored funding include various federal, state and local government agencies; businesses and community groups; foundations, associations and other universities. Sponsored funding usually is under competition among several entities, both nationally and internationally.

“The state only gives us so much money to perform our duties,” said Max Rothschild, distinguished professor of animal science. “The role of the university is to teach students and to do research that will help people in and out of Iowa – and sponsored funding is a necessity if we want to do that.”

One of many projects Rothschild is involved with is the pig genome project. Rothschild is the coordinator of this federal project, but he said the university is involved in many other projects and programs fueled by sponsored funding.

“I’m just one of several people in our department involved with these grants that are highly competitive,” Rothschild said. “Our primary source of funding is from the federal government and the industry. If we want to do something special, we need to get out there to look and see what funding is available.”