A Letter from The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

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Letter from theVice Chancellor for ResearchLike any Annual Report, this year’s Summary of Sponsored Research contains retrospectivedata, summary reflections, and forward-looking statements. In a year of continuedeconomic challenge, funding uncertainties, and constant change, we have nonetheless seenan unwavering constant. That constant is the passion and excellence of our faculty, staff,and trainees -- for inquiry, the creation of new knowledge, and the dissemination of thatknowledge for public good. Our position as a leader in research continues to benefit theworld, long after the research is concluded and results published, and our students havebecome alumni.Fiscal year 2011 realized the anticipated waning of the funding “bolus” which was infusedinto the nation’s research enterprise by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of2009. Washington University’s ARRA funding was $47M in FY11, compared to $105M inthe ARRA apex year of FY10. Nonetheless, total FY11 research funding of nearly $618Mevidenced the overall health and competitiveness of the University research enterprise, andthe strength of our faculty in competing successfully for increasingly sought-after funding.As in previous years, Washington University in FY11 received the majority of its extramuralresearch funding from the federal government. Federal agency support accounted for nearly76% of total research funding. The majority of that support derived from the NationalInstitutes of Health, which provided almost 68% of total University sponsored projectdollars and more than 89% of the federal support.The unwinding of ARRA, which saw a 12% decrease in overall federal research spending,from FY10 to FY11, was mirrored in a 13% decrease in total Washington Universityresearch support. Our faculty, like the American research community, will be challengedgoing forward, to maintain and grow their individual research enterprises. Increasedcompetition for federal research support has and will continue to necessitate greaternumbers of federal research applications by faculty and diversification of funding sources,such as foundations and the private sector. Washington University faculty, who currentlyenjoy greater-than-average success rates in federal funding, have already responded to theserealities. From FY06 to FY11, research funding from private sources grew 63%.
Private providers of research funding, in the form of sponsored laboratory and clinicalresearch grants, and philanthropy, from industry, corporations foundations, and diseaseadvocacy organizations, continue to provide substantial benefit to Washington University.Moreover, industry-sponsored research agreements represent the types of partnerships thatWashington University can forge with the private sector in moving research advancementsthrough development, toward commercialization, and, ultimately, to improve the lives ofpeople all over the world.The overall Washington University goal to “Enhance our global leadership today to benefitthe world tomorrow” took a new direction in FY11, with a University-wide initiative ofInnovation and Entrepreneurship. In March, Chancellor Mark Wrighton provided anaddress to the University community on this theme, and I followed with a presentation onInnovation, Intellectual Property, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship in Research.These presentations may be viewed on the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research(OVCR) website, at http://research.wustl.edu/Pages/default.aspx. Together we set forth anambitious goal, to expand the University research culture and to enhance the role of WU incommercializable innovation -- creating intellectual property and advancing the fruits ofresearch for the greatest public benefit. The coming year will see the implementation of ourambitious plans to realize these goals.New initiatives have not been limited to the agenda of innovation and entrepreneurship.FY11 saw the debut, and phenomenal success, of a new pilot grant program sponsored bythe OVCR, designed to stimulate and support new collaborative research. Termed theUniversity Research Strategic Alliance (“URSA”, Latin for Bear, the Washington Universitymascot), it requires that applications represent a new collaboration between faculty fromdifferent disciplines working together in a new area of research or approaching a problem inan innovative way. The goal is to promote new collaborations that build on differentscientific and scholarly backgrounds to facilitate breakthroughs in solving challengingresearch questions in a collaborative manner. The program attracted over forty applications,most from teams of investigators from different Washington University Schools. Theapplications were outstanding in their quality and novelty of collaborations, and six werefunded with the resources available. Hopefully many if not all of the new collaborations,funded and unfunded by URSA, will persist and succeed. The URSA Program will returnannually.This Annual Report presents funding and expenditure data and accounts of innovativeresearch and technology from the past year. As we strive to attract the best faculty andstudents, and support them in their research endeavors, next year will entail revising andstrengthening our operational and regulatory infrastructure, establishing and maintainingentrepreneurial partnerships, and supporting and encouraging innovative faculty and alumni,to help guarantee Washington University’s place as a global leader well into the future.Evan D. Kharasch, MD PhDVice Chancellor for Research
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