IU receives $469 million in grants despite economy

Grants awarded this fiscal year were nearly even with 2008, considering the Lilly Endowment, a major source of private funding, awarded drastically less money to IU this year.

IU was awarded $469 million in grant money for 2009 fiscal year from a combination of federal, state and private organizations.

This is a decrease of 10 percent, or $55 million, from fiscal year 2008.

The $55 million drop is mostly attributable to the decrease in Lilly Endowment funds from $71 million in 2008 to $20 million in 2009, according to a 2009 fiscal year report.

Excluding the Lilly drop, other funding was only down about $4 million.

“Lilly Endowment, every few years, has provided some very large awards to address a particular need,” said Steve Martin, associate vice president for research administration. “We only submit a proposal when Lilly Endowment expects us to do so.”

University administrators have expressed their contentment with this year’s awards.

“Overall, it looks like we’re doing pretty well given the country’s overall economic situation,” University spokesman Larry MacIntyre said.

Of the money received, $242 million is from federal agencies, according to the report.
“I think last year truly was a record year,” Martin said. “I think (this year) we did surprisingly well.”

During fiscal year 2009, 4,991 grant proposals were submitted University-wide. Of those, 2,750 were awarded.

The amount of grant proposals the University submitted increased by 15 percent from the previous year.

“One of the reasons IU did well was we’re continuing to increase the amount of grant proposals,” MacIntyre said.

IUB received 952 awards, totaling $137.9 million.

Although IU-Bloomington received 80 more awards than the previous year, the dollar amount is a $53.3 million decrease. That means the University is receiving more, but smaller, grants.

The large remainder of the funds awarded to the University were allocated to IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, with the School of Medicine alone receiving $239.9 million.

Proposals are submitted continuously, and there is a significant lag between proposal and award.

“We submit proposals year around. It never stops,” Martin said. “We have proposals coming in on a daily basis.”

Some have high expectations for next year’s proposals due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – a federal stimulus covering a wide range of sectors, including education.

“I think next year we’re poised to do even better because there is Recovery Act money we’re submitting proposals for,” Martin said.