n the most recent (2006) classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USC has joined the ranks of the nation's top research institutions. Carnegie lists USC as a research institution of  "very high research activity," a designation which has been granted to 62 public and 32 private research institutions. The classification places USC in the same research category as Harvard, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, and Vanderbilt universities. USC is the only university in South Carolina to receive the Carnegie Foundation's top research designation.

The quest for externally sponsored research grants--always a competitive activity in academia--has become even more difficult in recent years with the budget vacillations of federal funding agencies. Thanks to innovations in administrative support provided by USC's Office of Sponsored Awards Management, our faculty have been able to focus more on their actual research and less on the time-consuming paperwork that accompanies it. We've also launched a training program for research administrators who, with their enhanced skills, are supporting the University's research enterprise in a highly professional and efficient manner.

All of that infrastructure support is paying handsome dividends. Federal, state, and private funding for sponsored programs and awards totaled $166.2 million in fiscal year 2005. That’s an 11 percent jump over the previous year and nearly 66 percent more than fiscal year 2002, when awards totaled just over $109 million.

To sustain such performance during the next five years, USC''s research program will continue its strategic focus on nanotechnology, the conversion of future fuels, the environment, biomedical sciences, and projects that link these "thrust areas" to the humanities.

In the initial phase of Innovista, our research innovation district now under construction, four of the first five buildings will accommodate scientists from the University and private industry who will focus on future fuels and biomedical research. We anticipate that these scientific collaborations will foster many new externally funded research projects and spawn new discovery. The resulting intellectual property will translate into invention disclosures, patents, and potential licensing revenue for USC, which will be reinvested in further research opportunities.