WPI Reaches New Research Funding Milestone

With a 42.5 percent increase in external research funds on hand since FY 2016, the university is advancing its strategic goal of elevating the research enterprise.

September 18, 2018

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, center, Quinsigamond Community College president Luis Pedraja, and WPI president Laurie Leshin learn about WPI research during an event to announce a $4 million state grant to establish a photonics laboratory at WPI.

WPI achieved a new research milestone in Fiscal Year 2018, as the funds received from external agencies and organizations to support research hit $33 million. That figure has grown 42.5 percent over the past three fiscal years. The total includes $30.5 million in funds for work at WPI (a new record and a 44.7 percent increase over the past three years) and $2.4 million in subawards to research teams at other universities and organizations with which WPI faculty collaborate.

Bogdan Vernescu, vice provost for research, attributes the continuing growth in WPI’s research funding to a number of factors, some of which are direct outgrowths of Elevate Impact, the university’s three-year strategic plan. For example, as an initiative of the plan, the university established the Research Solutions Institute (RSI) and hired its first staff members during FY 2018. RSI was created to enhance the university’s success rate in winning research awards, particularly larger, multidisciplinary awards, by serving as a resource to the faculty.