<p>At a time when research dollars are stretched thin by demand, UF raked in a record $518.8 million in research funding in 2006.</p>
<p>The increase, up from around $490 million last year, was driven by biomedical research and funding from the National Institutes of Health and a $12.7 million increase in private industry funding, said Win Phillips, UF's vice president for research. This is the first time UF has taken in more than half a billion dollars in research money.</p>
<p>These research dollars, banked over the past fiscal year that ended June 30, will fund more than just graduate and faculty research.</p>
<p>Undergraduate students in physics, genetics, biology and other science classes can also be sure their professors are at the forefront of their fields, Phillips said.</p>
<p>UF's Health Science Center accounted for just over half of the university's total research dollars, with its six colleges receiving a record $271 million, according to a press release.</p>
<p>The university's Institute on Aging received a total of $5.4 million to study how exercise can prevent disability in the elderly and stroke victim rehabilitation.</p>
<p>"We often talk about being a large research university, and this is what that is all about," Phillips said. </p>
<p>UF's research enterprise plays an important role in the emergence of the State of Florida as a technological and economic leader in the 21st century.</p>
<p>Since its inception, UF has attracted scholars whose curiosity about the world around them has resulted in new inventions and procedures that have benefited the citizens of Florida and beyond in countless ways.</p>
<p>A Leading Research Institution
Research awards have risen steadily over the decades to last year's record $494 million, placing UF among the nation's leading institutions. More than $250 million of that total was for health-related research, representing a significant portion of the state's intellectual and economic commitment to biotechnology. Researchers at the McKnight Brain Institute, Genetics Institute and throughout the six colleges of the Health Science Center study everything from adult stem cells to gene therapy.</p>
<p>From Laboratory to Marketplace
The new economy encourages the rapid progression of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace, and UF is a national leader in this area. The success of the sports drink Gatorade is well known, but it is just one of many UF products that have benefited countless people. Other important products include Trusopt, a leading treatment for glaucoma, and the Sentricon Termite Elimination System.</p>
<p>Student Research
Graduate education and research go hand-in-hand. The great discoveries of the 21st century will undoubtedly come from the creative efforts of university faculty working closely with bright and motivated graduate students. Graduate students, particular those pursuing the doctoral degree, broaden the knowledge base of their disciplines in countless ways. UF undergrads, through the University Scholars Program, work one-on-one with Florida faculty on selected research projects.</p>
<p>The university's graduate programs have produced generations of professionals in a wide variety of disciplines, many of whom have risen to positions of prominence in our state, the nation and the world.</p>