MSU research spending rises across campus

Research spending at Montana State University jumped by 24 percent last year to a record $82.3 million, thanks to growing research efforts that extend across the Bozeman campus.

By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer

Every college reported spending more on research in 2003 than the year before, according to MSU’s Research and Creative Activities report on the fiscal year ending June 30.

The largest jumps were in the Colleges of Agriculture (up $2.7 million to $20.1 million), Engineering (up $2.2 million to $11.6 million) and Letters & Sciences (up $1.9 million to $24.1 million).

Tom McCoy, vice president for research, gave credit in the report to MSU’s "entrepreneurial" scientists and professors, and their adventurous spirit in seeking research opportunities for themselves and their students.

From the tiniest "nano" materials to the vastness of the sun, from the bones of dinosaurs to the physics of avalanches, MSU researchers have been pushing the edges of human knowledge.

The largest single jump in research dollars was reported by the veterinary molecular biology department, where spending grew from $3.8 million to $5.3 million in one year. The VMB department, which recently moved into a new leased building in the Advanced Technology Park, is hunting for ways to fight diseases that can infect both animals and humans, from brucellosis to chronic wasting disease.

Other areas on campus that increased their grants and contracts spending significantly included land resources and environmental sciences ($4 million), civil engineering ($5.1 million), physics ($7.8 million), biomedical research ($1 million), the Science/Math Resource Center ($1.6 million) and Project WET ($2.3 million).

McCoy estimated that two-thirds of the research dollars are spent in Montana, putting money into the local and state economies through salaries and taxes. To bolster one of the state’s major industries, MSU’s plant science and pathology researchers spent $4.2 million seeking ways to improve crops and fight plant diseases.

Though a few professors have criticized MSU’s growing emphasis on research and charged that it detracts from undergraduate education, McCoy argued that research benefits students directly by giving them a superior education, training on new equipment that can prepare them for future careers, and scholarships and stipends paid for with research dollars.

According to the National Science Foundation, MSU ranked 88th in the nation in research and development expenditures among public universities and colleges in 2001.

In the NSF ranking of all U.S. universities with research spending, MSU was below such regional peers at the Colorado State University, Utah State and Washington State University. However, it ranked ahead of the University of Idaho, North Dakota State, University of Wyoming, University of Oregon, University of Montana, University of North Dakota, Idaho State and the University of South Dakota, said Annette Trinity-Stevens, MSU research communications director.

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