ASU RESEARCH GROWS TO MORE THAN $218 MILLION PER YEAR

TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State University's research expenditures grew
to $218.5 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. This
represents a growth of $15 million or 7.4 percent over last year's
total of $203.5 million.

"We experienced decent growth in our research expenditures this year,
considering that there was a change in leadership in Congress that
resulted in some delays in finalizing the Federal budget," said
R.F. "Rick" Shangraw, ASU's vice president for research and economic
affairs. "Right now, our proposal activity is up so I am optimistic
about continued growth in our research portfolio."

Shangraw added that at these levels of research expenditures, ASU
ranks in the top tier of universities without a medical school and
without an agricultural school.

The $218.5 million total research dollars for FY07 comes from a
variety of sources. ASU spent $173.3 million in funds received from
the federal government and industry, $39.1 million in state funds
(including Technology & Research Initiative Funds from state sales
tax revenue), $4.3 million in funds received by the ASU Foundation
specifically for research projects and $1.8 million from local
governments.

There was a wide variety of projects that brought in major funds in
FY07, said Stephen Goodnick, ASU associate vice president for
research. Those projects included the Flexible Display Initiative
Center, which was funded at more than $9 million by the U.S. Army;
the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera project got $3.85 million
from NASA; a Department of Education grant of $2.35 million went to a
program at ASU's Speech and Hearing Science Department to maximize
learning opportunities for young children with disabilities, and
$2.35 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was provided
to the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics,
Engineering and Technology for a project on "opening routes to math
and science success for all students."

The National Institutes of Health awarded $1.44 million for a project
to explore plant-made microbiocides and mucosal vaccines; ASU's
Decision Center for a Desert City received $1.4 million from the NSF;
and ASU's Nanotechnology in Society Center received $1.4 million from
NSF.

Fiscal year 2006 was the first time research expenditures at ASU
topped the $200 million level, and it marked a doubling of research
expenditures in a period of six years. This is a remarkable growth
rate for a relatively young major research university, Shangraw said.

He adds that ASU is poised to earn more in research as it continues
to bring on line new world class research facilities and ramps up its
science expertise. Shangraw sees a maturing of ASU research efforts,
which should result in securing larger grants for the university in
the future.

"We have reached a point where a number of investigators are
interested in and able to compete for much larger research projects,"
he explained. "Our ability to match up against the more mature and
better funded research institutions is a sign that we are moving into
an elite tier of U.S. research universities. This is an exciting time
for ASU research."