Spending on research at GW has jumped 48 percent in five years, with $67.3 million spent in fiscal year 1999 alone, according to University data.
GW has also received more money in grants from federal agencies, private foundations and businesses that it did in recent years.
The University raised $46.7 million from federal resources during fiscal year 1998, said Susan Burke, information specialist in the Research and Graduate Studies Office.
The top three agencies GW receives federal research money from are the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and theDepartment of Education, Burke said. We don’t take money for classified research.
GW has been able to garner more federal grants because more graduate students have utilized money marked for training research, Burke said.
For example, the U.S. Department of Education provides money to train teachers in specialties that are in high demand, such as special education. In such a case, the department would grant a request by GW to help students in the Graduate School of Education pay for their education and be trained as special education teachers, Burke said.
GW’s hominid paleobiology graduate program was awarded a competitive grant in August from the National Science Foundation, a government agency that sponsors research and education projects in science and engineering.
The $2.6 million award will support a biological study of human fossils and genetic records, a subject traditionally scrutinized in the archaeological field, said anthropology professor Dan Lieberman, an author of the grant proposal.
GW’s ability to attract larger amounts of research grant money has improved the University’s reputation among its peers.
Under new research classifications specified by the Carnegie Foundation, GW – as a non-profit organization – is now ranked as an extensive doctoral and research university, the highest category an institution can achieve.
The Carnegie classification requires a university to award 50 or more doctoral degrees each year in at least 15 areas of study, according to the foundation’s Web site.
Carnegie bases its categorizations on descriptive statistics about institutions, including the degree programs offered and amount of funding raised for research.
