Research dollars at Montana State University climbed to an all-time high of $87.9 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004, according to Tom McCoy, MSU's vice president for research.

That total is a $5.6 million rise over last year and a healthy $21.7-million leap over the 2002 total of $66.2 million.

"At this level of research expenditures, MSU is by far the most significant research and development organization in Montana," McCoy said.

MSU's research volume has been climbing for two decades, sometimes in modest year-to-year increases and other times in big annual jumps.

Overall the recent increases are attributable to entrepreneurial faculty members eager to seek funding for their ideas; an increased availability of federal funds in new areas such as bioterrorism as well as significant increases in biomedical research funding; and increases in federal appropriations for such MSU projects as weed control, the development of high-speed optical processing systems and the exploration of exotic microbial life in Yellowstone National Park.

Annual rankings by the National Science Foundation put MSU in the top 100 public universities based on its research expenditures. But unlike the nation's top grant recipients such as Harvard, MIT and Johns Hopkins, MSU faculty still maintain high teaching loads and are recognized for their hands-on mentoring of students.

"The performance of the faculty at MSU is superb, and their success in competing for research funds demonstrates the high quality of faculty scholarship in addition to their excellence in providing a first-class learning environment," McCoy said.

Roughly 10 percent of MSU's annual grant dollars go toward scholarships, fellowships and student employment, said MSU grants and contracts director Leslie Schmidt.

In addition, such designated programs as the Undergraduate Scholars Program (USP) pay students to design and complete their own creative projects with a faculty mentor in any discipline. A portion of the overhead dollars MSU receives each year goes toward the USP and related programs.

Nearly 85 percent of the grant dollars are from federal sources, such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. Nine percent come from private sources, and the remaining six percent are from state agencies such as Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

How the money is spent breaks out this way: about two-thirds goes toward salaries for faculty, technicians and students; 15 percent goes toward research equipment; and the rest goes toward supplies and other operating expenses.

Some of last year's awards include $10.5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases to enhance human and bovine immune systems, a project done with LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals of Bozeman; $5-million from the National Science Foundation to study a vexing scientific question about microbial evolution; and $300,000, also from the National Science Foundation, for MSU historians to examine the way humans have used and modified the American West through science and technology.

These are multi-year projects, so not all that money is spent in the first year.

written by Annette Trinity-Stevens and posted for Sept. 13, 2004