UofSC faculty garner more than $279 million in research and sponsored awards funding

For the sixth time in as many years, the University of South Carolina has set a new record for external research and sponsored award funding—garnering $279.5 million in funding during fiscal year 2020 for projects related to health sciences, education, energy and more.

Prakash Nagarkatti, UofSC’s vice president for research, touted the 2020 funding success. “In a year that has brought so much disruption into our lives, it is amazing to see our outstanding faculty achieve new milestones and push our research enterprise to new and impressive heights of success,” Nagarkatti said. “Thanks to their hard work and agility in a very trying time, the University of South Carolina is advancing our ongoing research mission, even setting a new record, while adapting quickly to help address our nation’s most immediate challenge, COVID-19.”

UofSC faculty this year landed 26 awards of $1 million or more, including:

• $29 million from the federal and state departments of Health and Human Services to researcher Ana Lopez De Fede of the Institute for Families in Society, to provide expert technical support for the South Carolina Medicaid program. Read more about the Institute for Families in Society.
• $11.1 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to researcher Igor Roninson in the College of Pharmacy to continue the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) for Targeted Therapeutics, which works to train junior scientists as they seek pharmaceutical treatments for debilitating diseases. Read more about this center.
• $11.1 million from the NIGMS to researcher Ron Prinz to establish the prestigious new NIH COBRE Research Center for Child Well-Being in the College of Arts and Sciences. The interdisciplinary center, with its focus on prevention strategies to improve child well-being, will involve at least 17 faculty researchers from five departments across four UofSC colleges and schools. Read more about this new center.
• A significant award  from the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation to researcher Beverly Wilson to support FoodShare South Carolina for five years. This community outreach initiative of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia provides fresh food and education to citizens across the Palmetto State. Read more about FoodShare South Carolina.
• $4.6 million from the US Department of Education to researcher George Roy to fund a new initiative in the College of Education called Transition to Teaching, which will help recruit and retain educators in the state’s rural communities. Read more about the initiative.
• $3.7 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the federal Department of Health and Human Services to researcher Sara Wilcox, director of the Prevention Research Center in the Arnold School of Public Health, to implement the Faith, Activity and Nutrition Program. Read more about the program.
• $3.1 million from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to researcher Michael Beets in the Arnold School of Public Health to study the causes of accelerated weight gain among children during summer vacation. Read more about this project.
• $2.9 million from the National Cancer Institute to researcher James Burch in the Arnold School of Public Health’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program to study the role of circadian factors in inflammation and colorectal adenoma risk. Read more about this program.
• $1.48 million from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators to researcher Jennifer Keup, executive director of the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, to develop effective and equitable advising solutions across the field of higher education. Read more about this national center.

“The University of South Carolina’s research faculty, whose bright minds, incredible work ethic and enduring vitality inspire new generations of young scholars, are generating the breakthroughs that will lead us into the future,” said UofSC President Bob Caslen. “They continuously raise the bar on research competitiveness and set new records in funding success year after year. I commend our faculty members and those who support their research endeavors throughout the system on this remarkable new achievement.”

External funding trends at UofSC for 2020 included the following:

• The largest FY2020 awards were bigger than the largest awards in FY2019, with three awards totaling more than $11 million;
• the university saw significant increases of more than 20 percent in funding from two key federal agencies, the Department of Energy (21.1 percent) and the Department of Defense (23.9 percent);
• funding for research projects—as opposed to training and service projects—rose more than 12 percent over FY2019;
• health science research funding remained high in FY2020, with nearly $94 million from two highly competitive federal agencies, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services.