Figure represents 377% increase since 1996 EKU received nearly $50 million in external grant award notifications in Fiscal Year 2001, a 24 percent increase from the previous year and a whopping 377 percent jump since 1996.

Almost every segment of the campus community posted an increase, with the College of Justice & Safety leading the way with $36.9 million, a 29 percent increase in external funding.

"This is a point of pride," said Dr. Michael Marsden, provost and vice president for academic affairs, at a recent meeting of the Board of Regents, "and it is the result of a lot of hard work by faculty, staff, deans, vice presidents, the entire institution."

Ironically, the sizable increase in funding came at a time when the number of faculty proposals and awards slipped to their lowest levels in six years - 263 submissions and 198 awards.

Scott Tracy, director of the Division of Sponsored Programs, called the funding increase "a sign of the continued health of the University's sponsored programs enterprise in attracting large-scale multidisciplinary projects."

A significant portion of new dollars came through discretionary funding by federal agencies in support of University faculty and staff, Tracy noted. Federal awards, for example, increased more than 21 percent, from $8.8 million in FY 2000 to $10.7 million in FY 2001.

Federal awards for research increased more than 227 percent in the past fiscal year, from $1.1 million to $2.5 million. Total sponsored research awards topped $2.8 million.

Among the government-supported projects at EKU:

** $400,000 from NASA for a study of metastable solution structure in protein crystal growth.

** A $1.13 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide pre-service teachers with the skills and knowledge necessary to fully integrate technology into the pedagogy they apply and the content they teach. The project is a collaborative effort between the College of Education and the College of Arts & Sciences.

** A $236,000 grant from the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development to develop, improve and expand EKU's vocational-technical education programs.

** A three-year, $772,212 grant from the Hamilton Fish Institute for School and Community Violence for a longitudinal study of high school students' perceptions of violence, development of violence prevention strategies and dissemination of results.

** A $1.46 million grant from the National Institute of Justice to research and provide technology-based solutions, training and technical assistance to rural law enforcement agencies.

** A $937,891 grant from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services, Division of Substance Abuse, to provide training, consultation, technical support and compliance monitoring for several substance abuse-related projects.

"Nearly every department and college on this campus has contributed to the increase in funding," Tracy said, "and the faculty, chairs, deans and staff are to be commended for their commitment to our mission of excellence in instruction, public service and research."