Amid grant and contract funding uncertainty across the university-based research sector, Temple’s Office of the Vice President for Research is cautious, but hopeful, in the face of shifting political tides.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education upgraded Temple to an R1 institution in 2015 due to its research spending and doctorate production. In 2020, the university received its highest research and development spending rank at 84 of 914 universities, and only dipped below the top 100 in the 2023 data year, according to the National Science Foundation.
President John Fry shared last month that Temple received the R1 designation once again, marking 10 years of recognition.
“I’m really not concerned, even with the uncertainty that’s going on right now in Washington, that [research is] in jeopardy,” said Josh Gladden, vice president for research. “I think we are far enough into that pack of top tier research universities. I’m not really concerned about us losing, say, R1 designation. With that being said, we’re always looking for how to grow the impact of our research enterprise.”
Carnegie classifies R1 universities as institutions who spend at least $50 million and award at least 70 doctorates in research — more than 180 universities in the country hold the designation.
Temple spends around $300 million on research each year, Gladden said. In comparison, Drexel spent $169 million in 2023, and the University of Pennsylvania had a 2024 research budget of $1.37 billion.
National Institutes of Health threatened to pull indirect cost reimbursements to 15% on Feb. 7, Science.org reported.
While other universities have pre-emptively pulled funding, Temple has been receiving requested reimbursements as normal, Gladden said.
“The latest is a court did enjoin, or they put a stay on the [research grant pull] indefinitely until the full case can be heard,” Gladden said. “That’s where we are legally.”
Schools like the University of Pittsburgh paused Ph.D. admissions for a short stint due to “anticipated fiscal constraints,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Temple and Pitt are both R1 state-related universities in the commonwealth who receive state and federal funding.
Temple’s researchers can receive external funding and scholarships, but also have a comprehensive internal funding system it can rely on. Some of its internal development programs, which have different funding opportunities like the Blue Sky Initiative and the Humanities and Arts Research Program, can award tens of thousands of dollars for scientific and scholarly research initiatives.
“Our research is diverse, so it would be unfair to name one or two that are currently trending,” said Seema Freer, director of research development. “It’s robust across all 17 colleges. And if we were to highlight the areas, biomedical is a big space, AI is big, we have a lot of defense research that we’re doing.”
The Lewis Katz School of Medicine conducts the most research out of all of Temple’s colleges, with recent innovations from the school like the Thrombolex, which helps to treat limited blood flow to the lungs. State senators visited Temple on Feb. 24 to celebrate the state’s $2 million contribution in funding for the company that commercialized the device.
“There’s a whole portfolio of discovery around Thrombolex that resulted from the research at the medical school,” said Steve Nappi, associate vice president for technology commercialization and business development.
Undergraduates can apply for different research opportunities, within their own school and university-wide. The Diamond Research Scholars program allows students to study under their chosen mentors to research a project for 10 weeks during the summer and fall and receive a $4,000 stipend.
Klein College of Media and Communication is hosting a research week from March 10-14, including a faculty research forum on March 13, and the Klein-Carnell Awards on March 14. The award ceremony will recognize alumni who contribute to the media and communications field.
“In some places, you’re going to have very specific requirements as to what journal you have to publish in, or they might try to really shape the kind of research you’re doing,” said Fabienne Darling-Wolf, associate dean for research and graduate studies at Klein. “I feel that at Temple I’ve had a lot of freedom to explore whatever questions I’m interested in, as long as I keep being productive in my research.”
Haddijatou Jammeh contributed reporting.
Be the first to comment