WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Outside funding for Wake Forest University Health Sciences research and related projects increased by nearly $2.9 million in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2005, and continued a pattern of steady year-by-year increases.
Total funding reached $188,922,818, up from $186,043,802 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004.
Most of the support – $171.7 million – was for research and research training. Most of the rest, $17.1 million, was for demonstration and service projects, such as the specialized clinics run by Wake Forest clinicians for the state.
Federal support, always the biggest share of the outside support, increased from $146.9 million to $152.3 million. Outside support from the state increased from $3.6 million to $9.9 million.
“The increase in federal support is encouraging, since it came at a time of essentially flat federal funding for research,” said Sally A. Shumaker, Ph.D., associate dean for research. “We have a terrific group of scientists at Wake Forest, and I’m hopeful their continued hard work will allow us to hold our own in the current year, when the federal budget for research is also tight.”
The leading departments in outside support were Public Health Sciences with $44.6 million, followed by Internal Medicine with $35.2 million, Physiology and Pharmacology with nearly $17.5 million, Pediatrics with nearly $15 million and Pathology with $9.5 million.
“I’m especially pleased by the totals for Internal Medicine, which have jumped $13 million in just the past two years, and indicate that our clinicians are increasingly involved in research,” Shumaker said. “Nationally, there has been concern about the decline in physicians engaged in research.
“The record of the Department of Public Health Sciences continues to be trailblazing, amounting to nearly 24 percent of all the outside support received by the medical school.”
Revenue from industry-supported agreements was $16,801,781 for the fiscal year. While this is a decrease from the last fiscal year, it is the second-highest year on record, Shumaker said. The total anticipated by Industry Relations from contracts completed this year is $18,236,973, which is approximately a 4 percent increase over the past fiscal year.
###
Media Contacts: Robert Conn, rconn@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. U.S. News & World Report ranks Wake Forest University School of Medicine 30th in primary care, 41st in research and 14th in geriatrics training among the nation's medical schools. It ranks 32nd in research funding by the National Institutes of Health. Almost 150 members of the medical school faculty are listed in Best Doctors in America.