Movers and Shakers: USF Research Tops $440.5 Million, President Genshaft Announces in Fall Address

TAMPA – Researchers across the University of South Florida System set a new record of $440,577,680 in research grants and contracts in the 2014-15 academic year, President Judy Genshaft announced Wednesday in her annual Fall Address.

In addition to celebrating the new record research totals, the President lauded students, faculty and staff for their work together in boosting the USF System to record levels of student achievement, which included higher undergraduate graduation rates; an incoming USF freshman class with the highest academic credentials in university history; and 51 students who won top national scholarships, including scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge.

The USF System also is celebrating a record year in fundraising, with the $1 billion Unstoppable campaign raising $130 million in a single year, highlighted with major donations that saw the renaming of the Les & Pam Muma College of Business, the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy, the Jordan Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications, and the Barron and Dana Collier Student Success Center.

”In a world where the single most important asset any community has is talent, any and all things you do to cultivate, grow, support and expand talents leads to a brighter future for people far beyond our campus boundaries,“ President Genshaft said. ”That’s what is special about universities – they harness the transformative power of talent. That’s what is special about the USF System.“

Wednesday’s Fall Address marked President Genshaft’s 15th address and focused on how successful students, research and innovation projects, healthcare and community engagement activities create new opportunities across the Tampa Bay Region. Leading USF’s major initiatives this year is the development of the new Morsani College of Medicine and USF Heart Institute in downtown Tampa and the construction of the Kate Tiedemann College of Business and USF St. Petersburg.

Nationwide, communities are increasingly focused on modernizing their economies, and the region’s growing focus on high-tech industries and innovative start-ups are indicative of USF’s central role in economic development, Genshaft said.

”Communities who hold learning and intellectual engagement as a shared value will be the ones best positioned to be secure, sustainable and successful in a globalized future,“ President Genshaft said. ”That’s why I am so proud that the USF System is a catalyst for the transformation we see all across the Tampa Bay Region.“

The past academic year’s research totals are up from $428,257,788 in 2013-14. Ranked 43rd among both public and private universities in research nationwide, USF also is a global leader in producing new U.S. patents for inventions. USF ranked first in Florida, 10th in the U.S. and 13th worldwide among universities in securing utility patents for new technology, and has ranked in the top 15 worldwide for the past five years.

Among the new initiatives that are being unrolled across the campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee is an effort to bring greater coordination and collaboration across the USF System, which serves 48,793 students. Genshaft also announced that in Spring 2016, the Tampa campus will become smoke-free, joining USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee in that health initiative.

The full text of the President’s Fall Address is available here.