Cornell University's total research spending in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2002, rose by more than 12 percent compared with a year earlier, with expenditures at the university's Ithaca campus increasing by more than 10 percent. Research spending at the New York City campus, Weill Cornell Medical College, was up by nearly 18 percent over fiscal 2001.

In releasing the latest research figures, Charles R. Fay, Cornell's vice provost for research administration, noted that the spending figures represent all research dollars spent, including those awarded by federal, state and private sources. He noted that Cornell made "a substantial increase in investments in budgeted research" – a category supported by general university resources – which was up by nearly 78 percent, to more than $24.3 million, compared with a year earlier at Weill Cornell Medical College and by about 9 percent, to more than $81 million, at the Ithaca campus.

Fay said that total expenditures from all sources for the fiscal year were $465.7 million, with all units on both campuses experiencing an increase in research support, both government and private. Research spending from all sources at the Ithaca campus in fiscal 2002 rose to nearly $318 million from a year earlier; at Weill Cornell Medical College, total research spending increased to $148 million.

Total research outlays by division at the university during the fiscal year were: 32 percent, medical; 37 percent, the endowed colleges at the Ithaca campus; and 31 percent, the New York state contract colleges in Ithaca.

Corporate support for sponsored research at Cornell rose by 17 percent over fiscal 2001, to $24.9 million.

Federally sponsored research was up by more than 12 percent from a year earlier overall, led by the New York state contract colleges in Ithaca, with a nearly 17 percent increase. Weill Cornell Medical College had a 13 percent rise, and the endowed units in Ithaca had a 10 percent increase. The largest federal research funder in the fiscal year was the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which awarded a total of $139.5 million to the two campuses. The second largest funder was the National Science Foundation (NSF), with awards of $84.5 million overall. Third was the Department of Defense, with total research contract awards of $21.1 million. NASA's awards totaled $11.6 million and those from the U.S. Department of Agriculture amounted to $13.5 million.

Fay said that fiscal 2002 research expenditures from Cornell's own resources at the Ithaca endowed colleges rose by nearly 32 percent over a year earlier, to $22 million, with "significant allocations" being made to the synchrotron complex at Wilson Laboratory, which houses CHESS (Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source), LEPP (Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics) and MacCHESS (Macromolecular Diffraction Facility).

CHESS, which receives X-rays from CESR (Cornell Electron Storage Ring), operated by LEPP, is largely funded by the NSF as a National Research Facility. However, the Cornell administration has shouldered almost the entire cost of a $3 million facility, dubbed G-Line, for the exclusive use of the university.