Receiving about $750 million each year for research funding,
UCLA is the No. 1 public research university in the nation,
according to the National Science Foundation, and university
researchers say it is continuing to rise as a tight-knit research
community.
At a given time, about 5,300 funded research projects are being
conducted by UCLA faculty, graduate scholars and undergraduate
students from all fields of study, according to UCLA’s
research Web site.
Funding, mainly attained through federal and state grants, plays
an essential part in the ability to conduct high quality research,
said Roberto Peccei, vice chancellor for research.
“It’s cyclic, like the idea of the chicken and
egg,” Peccei said of the relationship between funding and
research.
“You don’t get funding unless you’re doing
quality research, and oftentimes, in order to do that research you
need funding,” he said.
While state funding has been generally stagnant in recent years,
federal grants have been on the rise, which has corresponded with
an increase in research expenditures, Peccei said.
“Although the amount of money awarded to us dropped about
$100 million in the past fiscal year, the first six months of the
current fiscal year has brought in about $500 million, which is
amazing,” he said.
The UCLA Medical Center brings in a large portion of the
funding, but other nonscience areas of research have also been
significant, Peccei said.
Ethnic and cultural studies have been important areas of
interest as well, said Ana-Christina Ramon, research coordinator
for the Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.
“Although not as much attention or grants are received
when major breakthroughs are made, it is still important to
understand society and its interactions so that people can work
together to bring positive change,” Ramon said of researched
disciplines within the center.
Peccei attributed the success of all areas of UCLA’s
research partly to the physical compactness of the campus.
“Someone from the college can walk just a few steps and
arrive at the medical center or the nano institute to share
knowledge,” Peccei said. “Research is a result of
multiple disciplines.”
In past years, there has been greater collaboration and
cross-departmental discussions in the areas of life science that
have produced higher-quality research, said Utpal Banerjee, chair
of the UCLA Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental
Biology.
“The stem cell institute is a great example of the close
scientific community, with various people from the college and
medical center working together,” Banerjee said.
He added that both undergraduate and graduate students can
benefit from such research, including learning how research is done
through hands-on experience.
“The primary point of a student coming to a research
university is not just to learn facts that are already known, but
also to make novel discoveries,” he said.
Recently, the proposal to induct a research minor into the UCLA
curriculum has been introduced to provide undergraduates with the
chance to get involved in research early on, said Ira Clark,
academic administrator of the research minor, which could be fully
approved by spring.
“The role of undergraduates in research is rising,”
Clark said. “Science will stand still without research, and
students get to be part of that forward movement of
science.”
Furthermore, students can learn from people who are in the midst
of generating knowledge, Peccei said.
One of the most commonly mentioned downsides of professors who
are simultaneously researchers, however, is the possibility that
preoccupation with research might negatively impact teaching. Yet,
research and teaching should complement each other, Banerjee
said.
“Balancing teaching and researching is like going to class
and doing homework,” Banerjee said. “One does not
suffer because of the other, and both are necessary in a university
professor.”
In fact, many professors who are involved in research have found
ways to work around the negative impact, according to Rene Ong, a
UCLA physics professor involved in astroparticle physics
research.
“When I’m teaching, I focus on teaching,” Ong
said. “I manage my time by trying to work on the most
important parts of my research, since most of my time is devoted to
teaching.”
With research at UCLA making significant progess and becoming
more integrated, the future of research at the university looks
bright, Peccei said.
“As long as we keep attracting first-class faculty and
students, we have good reasons to be optimistic,” he said.
“The money might be tight due to a tight federal budget, but
I’m confident we will continue to advance.”