Iowa State Sets New Record for Research Funding: $346.2 Million in FY24

This past September, Iowa State received a four-year, $14 million grant from the National Science Foundation to design and plan a new state-of-the art facility to test the loads that extreme wind events place on large-scale models of buildings and structures. The multi-disciplinary, multi-institution project is led by Partha Sarkar, Aerospace Engineering. Photo by Ryan Riley, College of Engineering, Iowa State University.

For the second consecutive year, Iowa State University of Science and Technology received more than $300 million and established a new record for external sponsored research funding. The $346.2 million received during the 2024 fiscal year that closed June 30, 2024, is an increase of $44.9 million or 14.9% compared to the previous record of $301.3 million set in FY23.

The new total research funding benchmark was achieved through new record levels of both federal and non-federal research funding: $236.3 million and just under $110 million, respectively. The $236.3 million eclipsed the previous record of $206.9 million set in FY23 by $29.4 million or 14.2%, while the non-federal research funding amount of nearly $110 million surpassed the previous record of $94.5 million, also set in FY23, by $15.5 million or 16.4%.

Iowa State attracted $544.6 million in total external funding for the 2024 fiscal year, up $14.1 million or 2.7% from the $530.5 million received in FY23. In addition to research, external funding supports initiatives across campus, including academic support, scholarships, and facility improvements. The funding can include contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements from federal, state and local governments, as well as from individuals, corporations, nonprofits and other universities. While external funding supports research operating expenses, it does not support operating expenses related to the university’s educational mission.

“The vision for Iowa State Research is to foster human creativity, fuel innovation and forge new frontiers that enable our communities, partners, and stakeholders to flourish,” said Vice President for Research, Peter Dorhout. “The record research funding the university received in FY24 validates this vision. It illustrates that our sponsors value the creativity and relevance of our faculty’s work, from the building blocks of basic research to translational research that yields proactive and innovative solutions to society’s greatest challenges.”

Making an Impact

Research is central to Iowa State’s land-grant mission, and for those who might wonder why it matters, the events of May 21, 2024, provided a vivid reminder. That day, a tornado – that the National Weather Service later designated as an EF4 with winds between 175 and 185 mph – tore through parts of Adams and Adair counties. The tornado twisted and snapped several wind turbines across those counties’ rural landscape and damaged numerous homes and buildings in Greenfield. Sadly, the storm also was directly responsible for at least 35 injuries and four deaths in Greenfield, and a fifth death near the town of Corning.

The profound impact of extreme wind events – tornadoes, gust fronts (e.g. derechos), and downbursts – are both immediate and long-lasting. The federal government, through the National Science Foundation (NSF), is investing significant resources to identify solutions to help lessen these impacts. One of those investments is the funding for one of Iowa State’s most notable new research projects for FY24.

In September 2023, Partha Sarkar, professor of Aerospace Engineering, received initial funding of $3.76 million on a NSF grant of $14 million to design and plan NEWRITE, a National Testing Facility for Enhancing Wind Resiliency of Infrastructure in Tornado-downburst-gust front Events. Sarkar is leading a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Iowa State – Alice Alipour, associate professor and Thomas M. Murray Faculty Fellow, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering; Bill Gallus, professor, Earth, Atmosphere, and Climate; Paul Kremer, manager research, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering; Anupam Sharma, professor, Aerospace Engineering; and Sri Sritharan, Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and Assistant Dean for Research, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering – as well as investigators from eight other institutions across the country.

Sarkar and his team will use the four-year grant to design the full-scale state-of-the-art testing facility (NEWRITE), including building a fully functioning 1:12 scale prototype (s-NEWRITE). The NEWRITE facility, if NSF moves forward with it, would be enormous – 250 feet wide, 500 feet long and eight stories high – and would offer the ability to run load tests on large-scale (1/10 to 1:1 scale) structural models of buildings and other structures at higher wind speeds (86-225 mph for EF1 to EF5 tornadoes, 70-85 mph for downbursts, 80-100 mph for gust fronts).

Seeing the NEWRITE come to fruition would be the culmination of Sarkar’s life’s work. “My first experience with tornadoes was when I surveyed the damage that an EF3 tornado did to Nashville, Tennesssee, in April 1998. Each time I’ve done damage surveys since then – including Parkersburg (Iowa) in May 2008 and Greenfield in May 2024 – I become more inspired by the fact that this is something that can be prevented,” he said.

“Buildings and our homes are supposed to protect us,” he continued. “Certainly, we cannot design all buildings to withstand EF5 tornadoes, but right now, we’re not even designing for EF1. If we start to design for moderate level EF2 and EF3 tornadoes, we won’t see the complete building collapses that cause so much harm. The testing capabilities of this facility would be a major leap forward in helping us design buildings to better withstand extreme wind events.”

Another notable new project receiving funding in FY24 resides at the other end of the weather spectrum. In October 2023, construction was completed on the Alliant Energy Solar Farm at Iowa State University. The installation, located south of Ames, features 3,300 solar panels and is capable of generating energy to power 200 homes.

In November 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE), provided an initial award of just under $680,000 on a four-year, $1.8 million grant to study the emerging concept of agrivoltaics – using solar power sites for agricultural purposes to make more efficient use of the land and create value for the communities where the solar panels are located. The project is led by Ajay Nair, associate professor of Horticulture; Matt O’Neal, professor of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology; and Anne Kimber, director of the Electric Power Research Center. This past spring, the research team began establishing and evaluating multiple horticulture crops and pollinator habitats among the installation’s panels to gauge the impact and interaction of crop production and beekeeping on solar energy production and site management.

A third notable new project from FY24 is focused on protecting our nation’s soldiers and their equipment by creating novel, lightweight, impact-resistant materials and structures from ceramic composites and alloys. This past February, Iowa State received an initial award of $3.5 million from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) – and the Department of Defense (DOD) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) – on a five-year grant expected to total $17.5 million.

Iowa State will work in tandem with UIUC and Quad City Manufacturing Laboratory (QCML) on this expansive effort. The multidisciplinary ISU team is led by Peter Collins, Stanley Chair (Professorship) in Interdisciplinary Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering; Eric Faierson, Director of the QCML and ISU research assistant professor; and Richard Lesar, Lynn Gleason Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering. The materials and engineered composites that come from this project are expected to significantly augment Army protective systems by enabling new capabilities such as spatial redistribution combined with energy absorption from impact or blasts.

“I never cease to be amazed by the passion, purpose, and professionalism the Iowa State Research community brings to their endeavors,” Dorhout said. “While we can’t expect to set new funding records year after year, Iowa State Research will successfully create opportunities and forge new frontiers as long as passion, purpose and professionalism continue to drive our enterprise.”

Here is a closer look at federal and non-federal research funding, and some additional new projects that were initiated in the 2024 fiscal year.

Iowa State University FY24 Federal Research Funding Overview

For the second consecutive year, Iowa State established a new benchmark for federal research funding. The $236.3 million the university received in FY24 surpasses the previous record of $206.9 million – set in FY23 – by $29.4 million or 14.2%.

The three agencies that contributed the most to this federal funding record were the Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

More details are available in this FY24 federal research funding overview.

Iowa State University FY24 Non-federal Research Funding Overview

Iowa State set a new benchmark for non-federal research funding for the fifth consecutive year. Non-federal research funding has increased from $67 million in FY20 to $76.3 million in FY21 to $86 million in FY22 to $94.5 million in FY23 and, finally, $110 million in FY24 – an increase of $15.5 million or 16.4% compared to the previous year’s record.

The key segments contributing the most to the FY24’s record-setting non-federal research funding total were:

More details are available in this FY24 non-federal research funding overview.