At the end of January, the university submitted our annual Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey to the National Science Foundation. The survey collects information about the fields of research, the sources of funding, and the institutional profile of the university by measuring R&D expenditures as a metric of research activity. It does not assess the quality or impact of scholarship or discovery produced by research. The focus on expenditures, however, allows for a longitudinal assessment of research activity at a particular university as well as providing a universal set of comparative indices among universities. For FY 2022, Georgia Southern reported $36.362 million in total research expenditures – a slight decline from last year.

In addition to the large aggregate numbers, the HERD Survey breaks down research activity by subject areas, federal funding by agency, non-federal funding, and institutional investments. These categories allow us to analyze our performance across subject areas and compare it with

our peers – in business, education, the humanities, and the social sciences as well as the life sciences, engineering, and computer sciences. Notable in this respect, is the fact that only $2.6 million of our research expenditures were attributed to federally funded dollars. There is no polite way of saying this - but as a faculty we are underperforming significantly (about $15 - $20 million per year) relative to our peers at other public, R2 universities in seeking and garnering federal support for our scholarship.

There are undoubtedly reasons for this disparity, but institutional comparisons tell us that teaching load, facilities, and COVID are not among them. To investigate this further and to help foster a more robust culture of research excellence at Georgia Southern, the Office of Research will be working closely with the Deans, Department Chairs, and Directors to accelerate our success in securing competitive federal grants in the years ahead.