Colorado State University research spending reached $398.5 million for the fiscal year 2019, setting a new record for the University.

The increase in spending, which is up 6.3% over fiscal year 2018, was due to a variety of reasons, explained CSU Vice President of Research Alan Rudolph.

“We thrive because we engage in important dialogues and collaborate across disciplines and languages, creating networks of innovation on campus and beyond,” Rudolph wrote in an email to The Collegian.

CSU’s enterprise consists of undergraduate and post-graduate students, faculty, staff and research leaders, Rudolph wrote.

“Their work contributes to a rich fabric of ideas and their application through discovery and innovation,” Rudolph wrote. “At the heart of many of these important applications are discoveries in basic research that CSU makes every day.”

Milestones

CSU made contributions to many different areas, such as climate change, air quality and medical science.

Rudolph cited the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, saying it’s one of the only institutions in the country using satellites to track and analyze weather patterns, and the predictions and images recently created of Hurricane Dorian were an example of the impact the institute makes.

“Air quality and its implications for human and animal health is another area where we are making important contributions, from the feedlots of Colorado to the rainforest regions of Africa,” Rudolph wrote. “The Partnership for Air Quality, Climate and Health has created a collaborative internal network that brings together CSU experts from a range of disciplines to conduct and communicate research and results to a variety of external stakeholders, as well as the academic communities.”

CSU is also making advancements in the medical field, with Rudolph citing the creation of the CSU Translational Medical Institute.

The TMI is a high-tech innovation hub that brings together scholars, creators and entrepreneurs working in collaborative spaces where innovation will thrive, according to TMI’s website. TMI’s goal is to discover and deliver solutions that utilize the body’s healing capacity and improve animals’ lives, as well as the humans that care for them.

The TMI will accelerate research in animal regenerative and musculoskeletal medicine across species, Rudolph wrote.

Yet another highlight for CSU was the Infectious Disease Research Center partnering with Zoetis, a global animal health care company, to work on livestock health with students and faculty.

“Our BioMARC manufacturing facility on the Foothills Campus established partnerships this year to produce new medicines for human clinical studies in global diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis,” Rudolph wrote. “It was also awarded its first grant to support a human clinical trial for its vaccine against Rift Valley fever, a disease that devastates communities in Africa.”

BioMARC was also named the 2019 Colorado Manufacturer of the Year, Rudolph wrote.

Prior spending

CSU ranked 70th out of roughly 901 universities for research and development expenditures in 2017, according to the National Science Foundation’s website. 

With $338.4 million spent on research and development in 2017, CSU ranked in the 8.6th percentile for research spending.

Comparatively, the University of Colorado Boulder ranked 48th, spending $499.3 million on research in 2017. The University of Colorado Denver ranked 50th, spending $480.5 million on research.

In 2018, CSU spent $374.9 million on its research enterprise, according to a SOURCE article.

Marshall Dunham can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @gnarshallfunham.