Research happening at San Diego State University is often overshadowed by the work taking place at the University of California, San Diego — a life science power house. That’s not surprising, considering that SDSU was chartered as a teaching institution, not as a research center.
But SDSU is stepping up its research efforts and getting more money as a result. In 2007-2008, SDSU researchers received nearly $131 million, a 9.4 percent increase over the previous year’s total. Also, the college saw a $7 million increase in research awards from the National Institutes of Health, according to an SDSU release.
“This is a gratifying increase, accomplished in an austere federal funding climate,” Thomas Scott, SDSU vice president for research, said in the release.
Scott also said in the release that the swell in funding demonstrates the “highly competitive caliber” of SDSU researchers.
In another noteworthy feat, for the last two years SDSU has been named the No.1 small research institution in the United States, according to Academic Analytics, a company which ranks universities’ faculty and achievements. If SDSU meets its goals, it will have enough Ph.D programs in the next five years to no longer be considered a small research institution.