<p>By WIN PHILLIPS </p>
<p>Buried in a recent National Science Foundation report is an eye-opening piece of news: The University of Florida has jumped 10 spots among top academic research institutions in research and development spending. </p>
<p>UF, which spent $565 million on R&D last fiscal year, currently ranks 17th among the nation's major universities - up from 27th just two years ago. UF now outranks the University of California at Berkeley, which spent $546 million, and has edged closer to such well-known institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which spent $601 million, and Duke University, with $657 million, according to the report by the NSF's Division of Science Resources Statistics.</p>
<p>UF's success is hardly a surprise: Our research enterprise has grown consistently for many years. But our rise comes at a time when federal support for research, the nation's largest single source of research dollars, is hitting the brakes. Federal spending on academic research rose just 2.9 percent last year, yet federal dollars flowing to UF increased 11 percent.</p>
<p>We are bucking the trend, and not just for federal support. According to NSF, state and local research and development expenditures didn't even outpace inflation. Yet UF's state funding soared from $48.6 million two years ago to $93.4 million last year, an amazing 92 percent increase.</p>
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