When Claflin University President Henry Tisdale challenged his faculty to pursue an aggressive research agenda, he knew the university needed to be dogged in going after lucrative federal research and development contracts to support that research.
“From the beginning, our game plan was to set the bar very high for our faculty and students in terms of research,” says Tisdale, referring to the resources he put into the school’s Office of Sponsored Programs. “I don’t believe in putting in that kind of mandate without a support mechanism.”
The office works with faculty to develop proposals and secure funding for research projects. In six years, the small, private school in Orangeburg, S.C., has increased its share of federal research funding from $3 million to $20 million, according to Claflin officials.
Claflin ranks 14th among baccalaureate colleges in the South in the 2011 U.S. News and World Report “America’s Best Colleges” issue and 8th among HBCUs. The university has secured federal and foundation grants to fund research ranging from the detection and remediation of weapons of mass destruction to biologic tissue engineering for cardiovascular disease.
Historically excluded from the sponsored research money pie, Claflin and a small but growing number of HBCUs are increasingly seeking to enter the arena and compete with traditionally White institutions as other sources of funding dwindle.
“If we are to move forward, the money is not in getting state dollars. Those dollars are getting cut. The money is in research,” says David Camps, the new president of the National Sponsored Programs Administrators Alliance of HBCUs, which counts 31 schools among its membership.
Securing government research funding can mean negotiating a complex maze of federal bureaucracy. Claflin and many other schools recognize the need for dedicated professionals to navigate the process. While many of the nation’s more than 100 HBCUs lack the infrastructure to go after that money, efforts to change that, including providing HBCUs with technical assistance on the how’s of obtaining funding, are increasing.
