This site recognizes those University of Maine researchers making substantial financial contributions to the overall well being of the campus community. The site also documents the status of selected issues relating to the status of sponsored program research at the University of Maine.
Note: Faculty members or administrators who wish to create complementary or competing eminent scholar or research scholar honor rolls using alternative criteria are invited to do so and I would be pleased to link them.
Honor Roll of University of Maine Researchers for FY 2001
(July 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001)
Honor Roll of University of Maine Researchers for FY 2002
(July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2002)
Honor Roll of University of Maine Researchers for FY 2003
(July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003)
CALCULATIONS
The above lists were generated from the official Annual Reports of the University of Maine Office of Sponsored Programs. In order to avoid double counting in arriving at totals for each faculty member, distributions among faculty for any particular grant are applied as reported on the "green sheets" submitted with grant proposals. The spread sheet columns for each year are arranged in descending order of indirect costs generated from external sources.
spreadsheet -1997 through 2001
spread sheet - 1998 through 2002
spreadsheet - 1999 through 2003
Note: These Excel spreadsheets were prepared using a PC. If experiencing problems with a Mac, try on a PC or try an alternative browser such as Safari.
"Indirect costs generated from external sponsors" was used as the primary criteria in ordering the above lists since such funds are treated as unrestricted revenue in the overall University budget, the numbers are readily available, and such funds contribute more directly to the overall financial well being of the campus as compared to "total research funds generated." More complex financial impact indicators are of course possible and I would encourage others to pursue such indicators. For instance, substantial portions of the grant dollars received by university researchers are spent to pay tuition fees for graduate students. This serves as another important source of general revenue for the university and might be factored into a financial research contribution ranking process.
OTHER HONOR ROLLS
See also the Research Honor Roll recently posted by Cliff Wilbur in Research and Sponsored Programs. Thanks go to Cliff also for developing the above linked spreadsheets ... and putting up with all of my processing requests over the past few years.
BACKDROP
In any one year there have been over 700 faculty members employed at the University of Maine in recent years. Of these, over 60% have typically received research grants administered by the Office of Sponsored Programs within the previous five years (i.e. were listed on "green sheets" as responsible for a portion of a funded grant). See the spread sheets above for the totals of awards and indirect costs generated by each individual on a yearly basis
Total indirect costs generated by University of Maine researchers from sponsoring agencies on a yearly basis is shown in column 2 of the table below. These funds are split between the University of Maine System (Column 3) and the University of Maine (Column 4). Most of the funds arriving on the UMaine campus are applied to the general university budget (Column 5) while a smaller portion is used to support the needs and programs of the Office of Vice-President for Research (Column 6). The totals of columns 3, 5 and 6 indicate how 100% of indirect costs have been budgeted each year. The method of distribution has changed as of FY 02. As of the current year, some of the indirect cost amounts received from funding agencies are now being distributed back to the units that generated the revenues in order to help support the increased burden of administering those grants.
|
1 Year |
2 Recovered Amount (RA) |
3 Distribution of RA to UMS |
4 Distribution of RA to UMaine |
5 Retention of RA by CFO of UMaine for General Budget |
6 Distribution of RA to VP for Research |
| FY03 |
$5,981,938
|
$646,080
11%
|
$5,335,858
89%
|
|
|
| FY02 |
$5,691,033 |
$692,592 12% |
$4,998,441 88% |
||
| FY01 |
$4,469,924 |
$616,992 14% |
$3,852,932 |
$2,742,919 61% |
$1,110,013 25% |
| FY00 |
$4,493,338 |
$619,334 14% |
$3,681,907 |
$2,788,422 65% |
$893,485 21% |
| FY99 |
$3,483,228 |
$518,293 15% |
$2,964,638 |
$2,196,153 63% |
$673,404 24% |
| FY98 |
$2,872,217
|
$457,222
16%
|
$2,414,995
84%
|
||
| FY97 |
$2,503,971 |
$420,397 17% |
$2,083,574 |
$1,610,170 64% |
$473,404 19% |
| FY96 |
$2,474,449 |
$417,445 17% |
$2,057,004 |
$1,323,427 53% |
$733,577 30% |
| FY95 |
$2,192,631 |
$389,263 18% |
$1,803,368 |
$946,827 43% |
$856,541 39% |
| FY94 |
$2,008,292 |
$370,829 18% |
$1,637,463 |
$676,679 34% |
$960,784 48% |
| FY93 |
$1,821,654 |
$352,165 19% |
$1,469,489 |
$441,313 24% |
$1,028,176 56% |
As of FY 03, no additional amount will be taken by UMS above $4,760,800. Thus as indirect costs recovered increase, the $646,080 going to UMS will remain constant.
As of FY 02, 20% of first $1.7M, 10% above 1.7M to $4,760,800, and 5% above $4,760,800 is budgeted to UMS.
As of FY 01, 20% of first $1.7M and 10% above 1.7M is budgeted to UMS.
Actual amounts do not include recovery of indirect funds on CWS/NDSL/SEOG
NATIONAL REPORTS
1. The report titled "State Science and Technology Indicators" published by the Office of Technology Policy of the U.S. Department of Commerce lists the following rankings for the State of Maine:
University Research and Development per $1000 of Gross State Product
2000 Report: Maine ranks 50 out of 50 states - last place (1997 numbers)
2001 Report: Maine ranks 49 out of 50 states (1999 numbers)
2003 Report: Maine ranks 47 out of 50 states (2000 numbers)
Number of Science and Engineering Graduate Students (normalized for 18-24 population)
2000 Report: Maine ranks 50 out of 50 states - last place (1997 numbers)
2001 Report: Maine ranks 50 out of 50 states - last place (1999 numbers)
2003 Report: Maine ranks 50 out of 50 states - last place (2000 numbers)
The reports indicate that these factors are significant indicators of a State's potential for future economic growth. Further indicators are included in the 2000 Report and the 2001 Report. Additional reports, including the 2003 indicators report, are available from the Office of Technology Policy of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
2. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching includes the University of Maine in its list of Carnegie Doctoral/Research Universities - Extensive. During the study period in which the list was compiled each university included on the list awarded 50 or more doctoral degrees per year across at least fifteen disciplines
3. The Lombardt Program on Measuring University Performance lists and ranks 200 of the Top American Research Universities. In its 2001 Annual Report it ranks the University of Maine at 148. What would it take to get the University of Maine in the top 100?
POTENTIAL INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE THE CLIMATE FOR RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE (following discussion was last updated Feb 2002)
1. The table above as well as total research funding figures show that the University of Maine faculty and administration have made headway over the past several years in expanding substantially research and development for the State of Maine. The January 2002 special issue of Down East Magazine on "Jobs in Maine" states : "The State has invested comparatively little in the kind of research and development that spawns new jobs." Maine State Planning Director Evan Richert is reported as having completed an extensive and elaborate study of Maine's income levels compared to similar states. He discovered two vital factors that directly influence income: (1) the amount of investment in research and development by government and businesses and (2) the level of post-secondary education among the population. State Economist Laurie Lachance is quoted as concluding "You can do all kinds of things - cut taxes, change laws, reduce regulations - but none of them raise per capita income. To do that, you need R&D money and you need education." Although still lagging way behind the investments made by other states, the State of Maine legislature has made recent R&D investments in the University of Maine. The table above as well as total research funding show those investments have been well spent and that university faculty and administrators can achieve impressive results. Such initiatives need to be maintained and expanded if momentum in R&D growth is to be sustained. (Note: The Bangor Daily News on 1/9/02 reports that the Governor is withdrawing $1 million from its commitment to research in the proposed state budget. Logically the State's commitment should be going in the other direction if it wants to achieve long term growth for the State's economy.)
2. Strong doctoral programs require strong research funding programs. Carnegie recently did new rankings for inclusion on the list of Carnegie Doctoral/Research Universities. The University of Maine was fortunate that they picked "best" years for our university. While the University of Maine has been averaging 50 doctorates per year, it has fallen into the forties in the past couple years. Increases in research funding and support for PhD students would help the University stay on the Carnegie list in future years. The faculty is unaware generally of this situation and a concerted effort to sustain strong cadres of PhD students should be pursued.
3. In May of 2000 the University of Maine Faculty Senate formally recognized that "the University of Maine currently does not distribute indirect cost charges generated through research grants back to sub-units of the university in a manner that provides sufficient incentives to the university community to increase flows of indirect research funds to the university." The proof of this statement is readily evident from Maine's bottom ranking in research and development as published in the U.S. Department of Commerce reports on "State Science and Technology Indicators" and in the fact that most other research universities do provide sufficient incentives to faculty to expand research programs.
Even though federal agencies and others who fund overhead expenses at the University of Maine believe they are paying such expenses in order to allow the research they are funding to be accomplished, the typical researcher that triples or quadruples his or her research funding receives no additional support to help administer those projects. Researchers can't bill direct charges for such expenses because the charges are already included in the overhead rate. As a result, there is a strong disincentive to personally expand ones research funding at the University of Maine. The more funding a researcher generates, the more menial administrative tasks a researcher is required to personally accomplish since no overhead funds are allocated to help deal with the increased overhead burdens. It is no surprise that Maine is at the bottom of national research rankings for any faculty member that has experienced very different research support situations at other universities. A return of 10% to 25% of indirect costs directly to investigators to help support their increased administrative burdens is not uncommon at other universities. (See the Faculty Senate Motion and accompanying information in Attachment 2 about distributions at other universities.) The policy change recommended and passed by motion of the UMaine Faculty Senate that would have addressed this situation has never been implemented. Common sense suggests that the research situation on campus will not change until major disincentives to expanding research programs are addressed.
Send corrections or comments about this page to onsrud@spatial.maine.edu