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Goal III: Research and Scholarship

We will expand UAB’s capability to discover and share new knowledge that benefits society, spurs innovation, fosters the region’s economic development, and further positions UAB as an internationally renowned research university.  

 

Rationale and Readiness

  • China has replaced the United States as the world’s No. 1 high-technology exporter and is now second in publication of biomedical research articles.
     
  • In less than 15 years, China has surpassed the United Kingdom., Japan, Germany, France and other countries in number of published research articles, moving from 14th to 2nd place (behind the United States).
  • Since 1995, the combined U.S./E.U. share of researchers globally has dropped to less than half, while the combined share of South Korea, Taiwan, China and Singapore has risen from 16% to 31%.

UAB is helping the United States and Alabama remain competitive internationally in research and development, with external research funding increasing by 50% ($163 million) since 2003. In 2009, that funding rose to a record $489 million, and the university received some $49 million in ARRA stimulus funding for research, representing 90% of the total of such funds directed to Alabama and putting UAB 17th nationally in market share of ARRA-NIH funds. UAB ranks 31st nationally in federal research funding (according to NSF) and 20th overall in funding from NIH. The School of Health Professions consistently ranks in the top two in NIH funding.

UAB is among only a handful of institutions nationwide, and the only one in Alabama, ranked by the Carnegie Foundation in both the highest tier for “research activity” and “community engagement.” The academic medical center excels at quickly taking discoveries from the lab to the bedside with revolutionary treatments and therapies. The UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science, created in 2008 with a $26.9 million grant from NIH, accelerates the bench-to-bedside process through strong partnerships among UAB researchers, our community, and other premier health centers around the nation.

  • Between 1996 and 1999, 157 new drugs were approved in the United States. Over the next ten years, the number dropped to 74.
  • In 2009, 51% of U.S. patents were awarded to non-U.S. companies.
  • Nationally the number of patents awarded per 1,000 scientists and engineers is 13.4. In Alabama, the number is 4.1.

 UAB’s leading-edge research spins-off—through technology transfer— successful start-up businesses, well-paying jobs, and significant revenues. Since 1986, the UAB Research Foundation has spawned over 40 startup companies and 400 option and license agreements generating $46 million in revenues. In the past two years, UAB has risen from 53rd nationally to 38th nationally, and fifth in the Southeast (behind Florida, Georgia, Emory, Duke and Vanderbilt) in licensing and patenting activity.

In 2004, UAB partnered with the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Center to create the largest business incubator in the Southeast, Innovation Depot, home to 64 high-tech companies with a total sales impact of $222 million in 2009 and $1 billion over the past five years. UAB continues its fruitful partnership with Southern Research Institute, currently collaborating on 12 promising projects in drug discovery.

This globally recognized research enterprise may be the single biggest industry burnishing Alabama’s national reputation, as it contributes mightily to American competitiveness in research and development.

  • In 2009, NSF began funding important interdisciplinary projects in the humanities and social sciences, incorporating such fields as linguistics, political science, developmental and learning sciences, and cultural anthropology.
  • Cybercrime costs the U.S. economy $117.5 billion per year.
  • There are some 2,500 homeless in Birmingham, and more than 6,000 throughout Alabama.

 UAB is also at the vanguard of research and scholarship in the social sciences and humanities. Our faculty has included international authorities on post-WW II German history (who commentated for CNN as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989) and the life and works of writer Marcel Proust (Mervyn Sterne Library is home to the third-largest Proust collection on the globe). The Communications Studies Department has ranked in the top five nationally for scholarship, and boasts two of the top five communication scholars in the nation. A UAB anthropology professor is an internationally respected Egyptologist who is using cutting-edge satellite images to both uncover lost cities in the Nile delta and track global public health threats; her work is the subject of an upcoming BBC documentary.

Faculty research interests enliven undergraduate education: New classes have been designed to investigate cultural issues at the intersection of the social sciences and the arts. For example, one professor’s work in ethnographic filmmaking spurred an interdisciplinary minor called Digital Community Studies, in which students explore socio-political issue in and around Birmingham by producing short films on topics ranging from environmental challenges to a growing Muslim community to homelessness. Another class, “Untold Stories” teaches students to do their own anthropological research by conducting interviews that preserve important oral histories from the community.

Research and scholarship in the socials sciences and business has a considerable impact on quality of life and on our state and national economy. School of Business faculty publish papers and textbooks that investigate expanding international markets, and immerse students in that research by taking students to China to study international business every summer. A globally renowned psychology researcher continues to develop his revolutionary “constraint-induced therapy” that enables stroke victims to regain use of their limbs. UAB’s collaboration between its Justice Sciences and Computer Forensics departments is investigating cybercrime perpetrated from computers around the globe, routinely partnering with corporations, banks and such agencies as FBI, IRS, NASA, Homeland Security, CIA and Interpol. Sociology faculty are doing groundbreaking research into the root causes of poverty and homelessness and strategies for reducing both.

 

Strengthening Our Impact

  • Grow research by recruiting and retaining outstanding researchers and scholars.
  • Improve the administrative and technological infrastructure to optimally support faculty and student productivity.
  • Maximize translational research and technology transfer with national and international partners, especially within the region's targeted business sectors.*
  • Create “Proof of Concept Center” for evaluation of potential commercial opportunities and support of promising start-ups based on UAB research.
  • Develop an “Innovation Fund” to support our patent portfolio.
  • Provide unparalleled opportunities for students to participate in research and scholarship.

 

* As defined by, but not limited to, those business sectors targeted in the Birmingham Business Alliance “Blueprint Birmingham”—biological and medical technology; health care services; metal and steel manufacturing; finance and insurance; diverse manufacturing; trade and distribution; arts, entertainment and tourism.


See the Research and Scholarship Scorecard.