MIAMI (July 27, 2000) - 

Florida International University researchers secured nearly $58.4 million in scientific contracts and grants in 1999-2000, a leap of more than 31 percent over the previous year and the third-consecutive annual increase in excess of 20 percent, university officials announced today.

Nearly $34 million of the new total comes from federal grants, the most competitive funding source and a key measure of the maturity of any university research program; "flow-through" funds, which have not yet been totaled, likely will increase the federal bottom line to more than $40 million. FIU secured $25.3 million in federal grants in 1998-99 and an additional $6.1 million in "flow-through" funds.

One key illustration of that growth comes from FIU's Southeastern Environmental Research Center, where scientists obtained a prestigious $4.2 million, six-year National Science Foundation grant to study the environmental health of the Everglades. The "Long-Term Ecological Research" grant is considered one of the most competitive in environmental science. (Please see accompanying release, "FIU Scientists Land Prestigious $4.2-Million Grant to Study Everglades.")

FIU leaders point out that the contracts and grants increase was realized without the benefit of a medical school. Such colleges tend to dominate research programs at universities that offer medical degrees, in Florida and nationwide.

It is believed that FIU now boasts the fastest-growing program, by percentage, of any Florida research university, public or private. When FIU contracts and grants are looked at in conjunction with those of neighboring University of Miami, it is clear that Miami-Dade County is emerging as Florida's "capital" of university-based scientific research.

"Our research budget growth is a strong indicator of how well our researchers match up against their counterparts nationwide," said FIU President Modesto A. Maidique. "In areas ranging from engineering to biology, our faculty and our students are making this exactly the kind of dynamic, public urban research university that we set our sights on becoming long ago."

The sponsored-research record is but the latest in a series of positive developments for FIU. Last spring, the Florida Legislature approved the creation of the College of Law at FIU - the first such public college south of Gainesville. Also last spring, the Board of Regents gave the go-ahead for the formation of a football program. Both the College of Law and the football team will launch in 2002.

"The momentum surrounding FIU is almost palpable," said Maidique. "I can't think of a more exciting place to be in higher education than right here, right now."

Opened in 1972, FIU now has an enrollment approaching 32,000 and more than 180 degree programs. The university has two major campuses in Miami/Dade County: University Park in West Dade and Biscayne Bay in North Dade.

MIAMI (July 27, 2000) -

A team of Florida International University researchers recently won a prestigious six-year, $4.2-million National Science Foundation grant to study the Florida Everglades as the basic "plumbing" of that important ecosystem is retooled over the next few years, school leaders announced today.

This is the first Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) grant obtained by any Florida university, say researchers with FIU's Southeastern Environmental Research Center (SERC). The NSF views these grants as investments in exciting, important ecological research programs and locations. The highly competitive program makes awards infrequently; at present, only 24 LTER sites are funded nationwide. If the Everglades study yields solid results, the grant can be renewed at the end of the first six-year period. Some existing LTER programs have now been funded for more than 20 years.

"The massive, $8-billion effort underway by federal, state and local governments to restore, save and protect the Everglades is important. It is equally important, though, that we measure the ecological effect that this restoration will have on the Everglades to ensure that the changes being made are for the better," said Dan Childers, FIU associate professor of Biological Sciences/SERC and Florida Coastal Everglades LTER Project lead principal investigator.

The grant, which provides $700,000 in funding for each of the six years, is being administered through SERC. In addition to Childers, there are five principal investigators on the project: SERC Director/Biological Sciences Professor Ron Jones, SERC Assistant Research Scientist Joe Boyer, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences/SERC Jim Fourqurean, SERC Associate Director/Associate Professor of Chemistry Rudolf Jaffé, and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Joel Trexler.

The LTER project also involves additional collaborators from FIU, the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and Fairfield (Conn.) University.

Together, the team will analyze a wide range of ecosystem health measures in the Everglades in such areas as biogeochemistry, microbiology, and plant and animal ecology. Of special interest to the research team are the Everglades estuarine areas - the interface between the freshwater Everglades and the coastal systems along the Southern tip of the Florida peninsula. "These are very dynamic and ecologically active areas that are hypothesized to be most strongly affected by the hydrological changes that will occur in the Everglades during the next decade," said geochemist Rudolf Jaffé.

Biological specimens and water samples are already being gathered for analysis at FIU-University Park, the university's main campus on the west end of Miami.

FIU's overall research program is the fastest growing among Florida universities, having just closed the 1999-2000 fiscal year with the third-consecutive annual budget increase in excess of 20 percent. Of its more than $58 million in contracts and grants, $34 million came from federal sources.

Opened in 1972, FIU is now among the nation's largest universities, with nearly 32,000 students and more than 180 degree programs. Its newly approved law school opens in fall 2002, the same semester in which its football program debuts.