By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
As a teaching institution versus a research university, Eastern Washington University usually finds itself up against some pretty big schools when it comes to competing for research grants from the National Science Foundation. Rare is the time when Eastern gets one NSF award, and more frequently none at all.
So when EWU College of Science, Health and Engineering dean Dr. Judd Case found out they had received four NSF grants at the end of this summer, one might forgive him for possibly considering a quick celebratory trip to Las Vegas.
“Having this kind of success is like having a great run at the black jack table,” Case said.
The awards bring Eastern's NSF grants to five, and are part of a great start on funding for fiscal year 2010-2011. Eastern received $13.8 million in external grant funding in 2009-2010, an increase of $1.4 million from the previous year, and has already received $7.3 million awards in the first three months of this year.
While the numbers are encouraging, EWU Grant and Research Development executive director Ruth Galm is cautious about getting too excited regarding breaking the university's $17 million grant funding record set in 2007-2008. Grant organizations like the NSF get their money from the federal government, and because the federal budget cycle runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, university grant funding can be heaviest in the first three months.
The number of NSF awards however is more important.
“It's the first time it's ever happened to us,” Galm said. “It speaks a lot to the quality of proposals because NSF is very hard to get money from.”
Case said the college received grant funding in four categories. The first was a $265,000 basic research grant for associate professor of chemistry Jamie Manson's project on creating what could best be described as magnetic plastics. The award was actually one of two that Manson received.
“He received one in physics and one in chemistry,” Case said. “But the NSF came back and said ‘pick one, we're not going to give you both.'”
Eastern's second award was a $169,280 advance catalyst grant to Kayleen Islam-Zwart for research into reasons “associated with institutional gender inequalities.” Case said this study would look into campus climates in research science and the stresses and strains on women faculty. The two-year study would also propose remedies.
“We then could apply for a follow up grant for implementation,” Case said.
The biggest award is a $1.5 million, five-year grant for the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, which will support a partnership between Eastern and Spokane Public Schools to increase the number of mathematics and science teachers produced annually, especially in biology Case said. Finally, the college's engineering department received a grant to help set up a program for veterans who want to enter the engineering program.
Case said federal education funding for veterans only lasts three years, but obtaining an engineering degree is a four-year venture. The grant will help Eastern design a program to condense the four-year degree into a three-year time frame as well as create pre-program courses for applicants who may need help with calculus, for example.
Case attributes the grant success to the university having some “interesting programs” and a good grants office, what Galm called a “one-stop shop” for securing funding for outside projects. The office sends out notices about upcoming funding, works with faculty to determine what grants fit with specific research and aids faculty in writing proposals by doing some data collection and determining budgeting constraints.
Once the grant is awarded, the office helps with grant administration aspects such as cost accounting and making sure the university is in compliance with a myriad of federal regulations and requirements.
“A lot of people think that grants are just free money, but there are a lot of costs associated,” Galm said.
But it is proposals such as the veterans' engineering degree development that Galm feels are one of several reasons why grant funding is key to universities.
“We probably wouldn't have been able to get that start early without the NSF grant,” she said.
Grants provide scholarships or other funding for students who work on the projects, get students involved in the research process and help university faculty conduct important research that might not otherwise be done because of the lack of institutional funds.
“It's brought in some good funding to support some nice research we have going,” Case said.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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