Why are Alabama universities missing out on research grants?

On September 23, 2011, Governor Robert Bentley reiterated his conclusion that innovation and research are the keys to creating jobs in the Birmingham area. He notes that the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Southern Research spin off businesses are one of the major factors in job and economic growth for Birmingham and Alabama.

One of the key factors in developing innovation and promoting research that leads to job growth is federal research grants.

In September 2012, Alabama universities received a total of $547574 in federal research grants. That might seem to be a lot of money but compare that to the $1.6 million that Georgia Tech received in the same time period. (All data is from the research.gov web site.)

Just what is the problem?

Research grant application and the receipt of federal grants are a political process that involves and employs just as much lobbying as any other function of the government.

One possible cause of low dollar value of grants to Alabama Universities is the Republican stance against research grants as a cost savings method. Previously Senator Richard Shelby has been very influential in getting research grants for Alabama Universities (especially the University of Alabama at Birmingham) but now he is stuck between obeying party dictates and doing what is good for jobs and universities in Alabama.

The upcoming presidential election may play a role in the lack of funding for Alabama schools. The funding distribution is operationally defined as fair and balanced but when appointees from one party are in charge of the funding decisions one would naturally suspect some bias toward states that vote for the party in power.

Whatever the cause this continued dribble of funds is not going to spark the "economic genie" that Governor Bentley named in his run for governor in an interview with the Birmingham Science News reporter for Examiner.com.

The grants to Alabama universities in September 2012 were:

NSF University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL 1212436 $23,140 John C Mayer Workshop on Recent Advances in General Topology, Dimension Theory, Continuum Theory and Dynamical Systems 01/25/2012

NSF University of South Alabama Mobile, AL 1156596 $297,740 Anne A Boettcher REU Site on Structure and Function of Proteins 01/25/2012

NSF Auburn University Auburn, AL 1157035 $104,856 Saad Biaz REU Site: REU Site on Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) 01/13/2012

NSF University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, AL 1219387 $121,838 Luciano M Matzkin RIG: Genetic mechanisms of detoxification in the cactophilic Drosophila mojavensis 01/12/2012