SIU received 44 point 7 million dollars in research grants and contracts during the 2020-2021 school year.
Vice chancellor for research Gary Kinsel said that funding is an increase over the previous year, despite the pandemic's impact on university operations. He credited the university's speed in issuing directives on resuming research with COVID precautions as a big factor in the school's success in obtaining grants.
Kinsel said SIU's status as a research university has a big impact on all students, including undergraduates.
"The experience that students, especially undergraduate students, get here, because SIU is a doctoral research university, is truly unique," Kinsel said. "Because students have the opportunity, and in fact are encouraged, to get involved in research, creative activities, scholarly work, very early on in their undergraduate career. And that's an opportunity you don't get everywhere you go."
Kinsel says the money brought in for research benefits all of southern Illinois, as salaries of researchers filter out into the larger economy.
