The research enterprise at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, achieved significant increases in several performance metrics in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017. Award dollars increased by 8 percent over FY16 and total research expenditures (TREs) increased by 11 percent.
The TREs in FY17 were $203 million, the largest amount in UT’s history. This benchmark amount reflects increases in institutional research funds, federal research expenditures (FREs), and UT’s business enterprise.
UT’s largest federal funder in FY17 was the Department of Energy, largely due to participation in IACMI–The Composites Institute. IACMI accounted for $21.6 million of the $22 million cost share reported by the UT Research Foundation and is the primary source of the increase in FY17 TREs.
In federal fiscal years 2016 and 2017 (October 1–September 30), the federal funding agencies that spent the most on research and development (R&D) were, in descending order, the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation. In FY17, UT’s largest federal expenditures were from, again in descending order, the Department of Energy, NSF, DOD, DHHS, and NASA.
Publication output is another important indicator of research performance. Between 2012 and 2017, the university’s number of publications increased by 29 percent in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science and increased by 25 percent in Elsevier’s Scopus.
UT is focused on identifying game-changing opportunities that align with our unique research capabilities and expertise. We will strategically target our efforts toward diversifying sources of federal funding, looking to the innovative efforts of our faculty and students and the exciting research discoveries that lie ahead—with teamwork taking us from excellence to preeminence.
Victor R. McCrary
Vice Chancellor for Research