President's Report Masthead
September 30, 2018
Research funding breaks record in 2017-18

Jonathan Cohen
Professor of Chemistry Omowunmi Sadik is one of the many faculty who successfully garner external funding for their research.

Research funding breaks record in 2017-18

Binghamton University reported research expenditures totaling $47.5 million in 2017-18, an increase of about 19 percent from the previous fiscal year.

The figure tops 2011-12, the campus’ all-time best year for research funding, when just over $40 million was reported.

“The Division of Research remains committed to a goal of $50 million in research activity by 2020,” says Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research. “I’m optimistic that we will meet this target, perhaps a year ahead of schedule.”

Binghamton researchers submitted more than 560 proposals for a total of $223.6 million in funding in 2017-18, a similar dollar figure to the previous year. Committed funds, which research administrators consider a leading indicator of activity, reached $57.6 million.

Federal sponsors, led by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services, accounted for more than 60 percent of Binghamton’s research funding. State and local governments were also a significant sponsor, accounting for 18 percent of Binghamton’s research funding.

Healthcare research accounted for nearly a third of expenditures, with electronics packaging and systems engineering following at about 22 percent. Binghamton researchers also received funding for research related to energy, education, historic preservation and information security.

Sammakia noted that the division continues to focus on supporting interdisciplinary research as well as large faculty teams with interests in strategic areas of importance to the state and the country. “We are excited to see significant faculty interest around the topic of data science,” he says, “and we anticipate the new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will create additional opportunities for collaborations.”