Vice Chancellor for Research Joe G.N. Garcia had overall good news to announce in his Feb. 16, 2011 report on the state of research and funding at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The most promising statistic is that UIC has turned a corner with regard to sponsored research funding: for the first time in five years, funding increased, from $347M to $412M for the fiscal year ending in 2010. (The previous year had actually shown a decline.)
Major accomplishments of the 2010 year (Garcia's first as Vice Chancellor) that will enhance future research included:
- Institute for Human Genetics established and faculty hired
- Research Resources Center secured $6.8M in new equipment funding
- Biospecimen Resource (Tissue Bank) established for large-scale acquisition and use of biospecimens in research
- Illinois Cleantech Ecosystem Consortium established by Clean Energy Trust with $1M+ in DOE funds, with UIC as lead institution
The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has provided significant funds for research at UIC, but Garcia noted that other sources of funding (namely non-ARRA NIH and NSF grants) were also looking strong. Garcia's own $2.4M (annual) NIH grant was renewed for 2011, for instance, as was that of his colleague in cardiopulmonary research, Dr. Asrar Malik, who secured $2.26M in continued funding for 2011.
UIC's outlook is on par with that of Wall Street Biobeat, which predicts that "the life sciences tools and diagnostics industry could continue to perform well in 2011" after showing revenue and earnings growth in 2010. The BioBeat report noted "strength in both academic as well as industrial/applied markets."
If you are a supplier of life science tools and want to meet researchers at UIC, plan on exhibiting at Biotechnology-Calendar's 12th Annual Chicago BioResearch Product Faire May 12, 2011, or at the Urbana-Champaign Campus BioResearch Faire on May 11.
