ODU releases annual research figures

Old Dominion University's research and development expenditures reached $73.6 million in fiscal year 2007, according to its annual research report released last week.  The report highlighted the university's growth in research spending which grew about $8 million compared to FY 2006 and has more than doubled since 2004.
Of that $73.6 million total, $40.6 million was expended through the ODU Research Foundation.  ODU received $43.1 million in new research funding awards during the year and researchers submitted proposals valued at $135 million.

About 45 percent of the total R&D money spent on research came from federal sources, followed closely by money from within ODU itself.  "A huge investment has been made from within ODU in order to make this happen," said Mohammad Karim, vice president for research at ODU. "Internal resources have been used to make this transition."
Seven percent of the amount came from state funds, while 4 percent came from industry sources.  Not surprisingly, the largest source of funds for the year was the Department of Defense from which came 31 percent of the $73 million. The Department of Education, NASA, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health rounded out the top five funding sources respectively.

Research in engineering and technology made up the largest percentage of expenditures in 2007, 41 percent of the total. Sciences and education followed in the distance at 29 percent and 22 percent respectively.
The Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center topped the charts in expenditures during the most recent year.

Of the 10 units within ODU that had expenditures of more than $1 million, VMASC by far led the pack with $8.1 million in research funds.  A VMASC principal investigator also led all investigators in expenditure dollars with more than $5 million in FY 2007 and modeling and simulation and aerospace investigators comprised the top five.