<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>