Measuring University Performance Series (MUPS)
Issue I:4
Research
November 1, 1995
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The University of Florida series, Measuring University Performance, will continue with the issue of December 1, 1995, focused on student academic profiles. Other issues will take up additional topics reflecting the university's commitment to measuring university performance in quality and productivity of research, teaching, extension, and service. All of us at the University of Florida welcome comments and suggestions prompted by this series. Please write to the Office of Institutional Planning and Research, PO Box 113115, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-3115 (ufdata@aa.ufl.edu).
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Research represents one of the university's most important products. The faculty, staff, and students of a major university participate in the process of discovery throughout their careers at the institution. Undergraduate students receive the immediate benefit of research in the classroom as faculty transfer the results of their scholarship into relentlessly updated information and interpretation. Undergraduates also participate in the research process directly through laboratory and other research assistant assignments, and many undergraduates do independent research under the direction of a senior professor. Graduate students also participate directly in research as part of their program of education, working independently or in groups or projects with senior professors. Throughout, the research staff of the university contribute expertise, skills, and support to this enterprise. In the following charts we identify some rough measures of the state funded effort of the ranked faculty that drives the research program. State funded effort is the state investment in the university's research mission. A rough indicator of its productivity for publication oriented research lies in the outside dollars earned relative to state dollars spent. This measure is hardly all inclusive but it correlates well with other less easily obtained data on research results in major universities. About 10% of ranked faculty research time focuses on the scholarship that underlies teaching and produces better instruction for students at all levels from undergraduate through professional and graduate study, but does not produce publications or grants. Finally, patents and royalties provide an indicator of the university's effectiveness in transferring the results of research into the state and national economy. The university reinvests its share of these self-generated funds into further research. Overall, research is a major engine of economic development. Every 1 dollar of research funding spent (from whatever source) produces 3 dollars in economic impact to the community or state. Each million dollars of R&D spending produces just over 33 jobs. The University of Florida generates close to $200 million in research expenditures or 6,600 jobs a year. Research is a very good state investment. The state provides dollars for faculty to perform a variety of functions. As this chart shows, for the core colleges of the university, all but the health sciences and agriculture, faculty spend almost two thirds of their time (62%) on direct student activities in teaching and advising. Research time falls into two categories: the 10% required for instructional scholarship and the remaining 11% of publication oriented research. Public service and governance, while lower in faculty effort at a total of 7.5% nonetheless require careful evaluation to determine whether some of this effort could contribute to research or instruction. Academic administration at less than 10% is about right by most standards. Fig. 1 State Funded Ranked Faculty Effort E&G 1993-94 
The colleges of the Health Sciences Center support a substantially higher percentage of graduate and professional students than do the E&G colleges. As we would expect, they have slightly less state funded effort spent on the direct student activities of advising and teaching and slightly more time spent on publications oriented research (14%) after deducting the instructionally required research of 10%. Of more concern is the administrative investment of faculty time at 12% and the combined public service and governance commitment of 9%. However, the very large volume of outside dollars generated in research and clinical care make direct comparisons with the E&G colleges or IFAS difficult at best. Fig. 2 State Funded Ranked Faculty Effort Health Sciences Center 1993-94 
IFAS, with its mission of direct support of Florida agriculture through extensive on-campus research and state wide research and education center programs, shows a much different use of state funded ranked faculty effort. Over half the IFAS faculty's effort delivers mission specific research to Florida's agricultural industries along with the 10% required to support the growing instructional program and extension. IFAS faculty spend about 17% of their state funded effort on direct student teaching and advising. Academic administration is below 10% and the governance and public service investment is low. IFAS's special mission as a land-grant institution requires this focus on direct agricultural research. Continuing internal review within IFAS may lead to reallocations between extension and research to meet changing needs in the state. Fig. 3 State Funded Ranked Faculty Effort IFAS 1993-94 
We measure the return on the state's investment in research by calculating the sponsored research dollars generated for each state dollar spent on research. We expect a major research university to generate at least 3 sponsored research dollars from outside the institution for every state dollar spent on publication oriented research by the ranked faculty. After taking out the 10% of state dollars invested in the scholarship that supports teaching, the core colleges in E&G return almost 4 dollars for every state dollar invested and the health sciences colleges return almost 7 dollars for every state dollar invested. IFAS, with its specific state mission in support of agriculture does not pursue externally funded grants and contracts at the same level. Nonetheless, even IFAS returns almost one externally funded dollar for every state dollar invested. State funded research is clearly a very good investment. Fig. 4 Sponsored Research Dollars Generated per State Dollar Invested in Research Over 10% Needed for Instruction (1993-94) 
The research effort of the ranked faculty also produces patents. The number of patents awarded serves as a very rough indicator of the university's commitment to protecting the intellectual property developed with state, federal, and private funds and reflects an active program to translate research products into commercial activity to benefit the people and economic development of the state and the nation. The total number of patents also provides an index to the level of scientific activity. This measure, along with the others in this report does not, however, capture the work of faculty in the fine arts, humanities and social sciences whose work may well produce major contributions enjoyed by and benefiting many citizens. Books, plays, sculpture, music, all represent publication oriented research of the ranked faculty even though this production does not appear here. Consequently these data are only an indicator of activity and most certainly underestimate the research productivity of the faculty.
[NOTE: The University of California System is omitted from these gb rankings; only individual universities are included.] Royalty income
indicates the success of the university in transferring its technology
into the marketplace. Most patents produce very small amounts of money,
and a few discoveries produce a significant return to the university. The
time lag between a patent award and a return of revenue to the university
is very long, 15 to 20 years in many cases. From time to time a university
succeeds in a major way as we did with Gatorade which produces about 83% of
the revenue from royalties. The commitment to bring scientific discoveries
to market is a critical dimension of research productivity and royalty
income is a useful if imperfect measure.
Another, less statistically malleable, measure of research achievement is the individual awards of the faculty. The following provide a general indication of some of the national recognition received by the university's faculty. Many other awards and honors of the faculty, staff, and students reflect particular excellence in one or another field, but space permits only the summary recorded here: NSF Young Investigator Awards (now called Faculty Early CAREER Awards)
Guggenheim Fellowship Awards
National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Sciences
Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
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