2002 OARDC Annual Report

PUTTING STATE DOLLARS TO WORK
OARDC actively seeks to invest state-appropriated funds into people, equipment and programs with the philosophy that these investments will provide our scientists with the resources necessary to successfully compete for additional funds. Listed here are just a few of the many examples of how our scientists are putting those state dollars to work and yielding a return on the state of Ohio's investment in OARDC.

$2 million
Donald McFeeters and Y. M. Saif
$1 to 2 million
Steven Schwartz
$500,000 to $1 million
Thomas Bean, David Francis, Rattan Lal, F. William Ravlin and Linda Saif
$400,000 to $499,000
Tammy Bray, Mark Morrison and Steven Slack
$300,000 to $399,000
Claudio Gonzalez and Guo-Lian Wang
$200,000 to $299,000
Wolfgang Bauer, David Coplin, Clive Edwards, John Erbaugh, John Finer, Serita Frey, Timothy Haab, Harry Hoitink, Sophien Kamoun, Norval McCaslin, Joy Pate, Steven St. Martin, Eric Stockinger, Kuan-Chong Ting, Samuel Traina and Roger Williams
INVESTMENTS IN PEOPLE

The scientists listed to the right are primary investigators and individuals who represent programs leveraging state funding to bring additional external dollars to OARDC research programs. These are excellent examples of high-caliber scientists who are successfully competing for additional funding to enhance research in their areas of interest.

One example of an additional funding source is the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems, which has awarded over $12 million to OARDC scientists since September 2000. In addition to this initiative, our scientists have successfully competed for large grants from other sponsors as well. Here is a listing of the ten largest external grants our scientists successfully competed for this year:

Effects of nutrition and waste management technologies on pathogens in animal excreta. Over $2.3 million sponsored by the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems; principal investigator: Y. M. Saif.

Technology training and business incubator center. Over $1.9 million sponsored by the Economic Development Administration; principal investigator: Donald McFeeters.

Family nutrition program. Over $1.8 million sponsored by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services; principal investigator: Joyce McDowell.

A model system for functional foods: Tomato products containing soy. Over $1.2 million sponsored by the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems; principal investigator: Steven Schwartz.

Improving efficiency of processing tomato production: Managing color disorders. Over $600,000 sponsored by the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems; principal investigator: David Francis.

Soil and ecosystem restoration using flue gas desulfurization by-products for soil carbon sequestration and biofuel production. Over $570,000 sponsored by Ohio Coal Development; principal investigator: Rattan Lal.

Ornamental Germplasm Center. Over $440,000 sponsored by the Agricultural Research Service; principal investigator: Steven Slack.

Sequencing the Prevotella ruminicola genome for functional and comparative analyses. Over $440,000 sponsored by the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems; principal investigator: Mark Morrison.

University partnership for management and economic analysis of forest resources and products in the Tomsk Oblast. Over $290,000 sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; principal investigator: Roger Williams.

Pathogens of human caliciviruses on growth of field horticultural crops. Over $290,000 sponsored by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health; principal investigator: Linda Saif.

INVESTMENTS IN PROGRAMS

Over 70 researchers from 11 Ohio state-funded universities are involved in the Ohio Plant Biotechnology Consortium, including 32 scientists from Ohio State University. The consortium harnesses both human and intellectual capital within Ohio's university system by joining together people and technologies in collaborative ways to solve problems of global, national or local significance. OPBC funds are administered through a competitive grant program designed to encourage the development of the strongest and most relevant inter-university and interdisciplinary teams. To date, 11 full research grants have been funded by the consortium for a total of $389,360 awarded.

INVESTMENTS IN EQUIPMENT

With appropriated state funds, OARDC invests in several large equipment purchases. This equipment provides OARDC scientists with the resources necessary to successfully compete for grants and address questions that might otherwise be beyond the capabilities of their laboratories. These equipment purchases are just one more example of how OARDC scientists are investing appropriated funds in a manner that will allow them to generate additional funding to address state, regional, national and international issues.

For example, OARDC invested $635,000 to purchase biotechnology instruments. These instruments were used to gather information critical to answering specific research questions and served as tools to help obtain additional funding and address questions in over $9 million worth of grant-funded projects at OARDC. Two of these pieces of equipment were used to obtain over $2.5 million each in extramural funds.

Below are examples of equipment and grants obtained as a result of having that equipment.

Name of Instrument Extramural Grant Funds Received

Q-Pix $2,668,036

Lightcycler, real-time quantitative PCR $2,548,676

Carbon/nitrogen analyzer $1,954,679

Tandem Mass Spectrometer $1,775,000