This report examines trends in grants and other funding and research support for various fields of engineering in the United States, Canada, UK and Ireland, and Australia and New Zealand. One hundred twenty three faculty members provided insights on the level of grant support they receive and future expectations for this support. They also evaluate various university services to help them to obtain grants, such as assistance in finding grant sources and preparing proposals. The report helps its readers to answer questions such as: how many grants have faculty applied for? How much funding have they been awarded? What are the emerging sources? How much time do they spend looking for funding?
Data includes percentage of respondents’ work time accounted for by applying for grants and funding, the US dollar value of grants they have received within the past five years, and much more. Additionally, respondents specify the percentage of research funding they have been receiving from various sources over the past five years, areas and sources of increase and decline in research funding, and number of grants they have applied for within the past 12 months. The study also explores the best or emerging sources of support for engineering research funding and faculty also point out emerging areas in their respective specialties likely to attract more research funding.
Just a few of this report’s many findings are that:
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On average, respondents spend 20.67% of their work time applying for grants and seeking funding sources.
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Private sector grants accounted for a mean of 18% of the value of all grants for faculty predominantly involved in civil engineering.
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For adjunct and clinical faculty, half of all research funding has come from private sector sources.
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Male faculty applied for a mean of 3.02 grants in the past year; female faculty, a mean of 1.63.
Data in the 85-page report is broken out by many variables related to the individual survey participants and their institutions including but not limited to country of respondent, engineering school ranking, gender, age, public or private school status, and academic field of engineering.