Dean's Message
Research funding in context
April 2023
|
Dear Jacobs School graduate students and postdocs,
As your Dean, it's my responsibility to make sure everyone in our community has accurate information regarding where the funding for graduate student research comes from – and where it doesn't come from. In short, here at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, the majority of the funds that support graduate students through research come directly from the US government. This funding comes primarily through grants made to the principal investigators (faculty and research scientists, for the most part) and fellowships for graduate students. To a lesser, but still important extent, graduate student research is funded by industry and by philanthropy. To put it another way, very few of the funds that pay the salaries and benefits of Jacobs School graduate student researchers come directly from the campus or the university. Instead, they come from external funding sources. The faculty compete strongly to win these grants. Overall, less than 20% of funding proposals are actually funded.
Striving for the sustained excellence that is necessary in order to secure this funding, despite the uncertainties, is a team sport. I know it well. I ran my own academic engineering research lab at UC Berkeley for decades. At its peak, it comprised over 32 fully funded graduate students and postdocs. Researchers from my lab have gone on to wonderful, impactful careers launched at least in part through the insights and experiences gained via the hard work of engineering research.
Of course, I didn't secure my lab's funding alone. We did it together as a team. Both directly and indirectly, every member of a research lab contributes to the ability of that lab to obtain future funding. Every discovery, every scientific or technical advance that you contribute to plays critical roles in demonstrating results from current funding and in securing future funding.
For all this to come together, academic research labs must be built through strong relationships between people who practice transparent communication. Strong relationships are necessary for sustained excellence. This sustained excellence, in turn, leads to future research funding for current students and postdocs – and for the next generation of grad students and postdocs in that lab.
Faculty-graduate student relationships are one of the most fundamental and powerful of these academic research relationships. They often start as apprenticeships for the student, building on grant-funded research, and frequently grow in different directions, including a PhD thesis. Our IDEA Engineering Student Center’s Grad & Postdoc Talks series has covered many of these topics, including the ins and outs of university finances. Moreover, Associate Dean Darren Lipomi has weekly office hours where you can discuss any questions you have about the mechanics of the interactions between professors and early-career researchers. In addition, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu. I encourage you to ask questions and learn more about research funding and how it can be obtained.
The Jacobs School works hard – and together we achieve a lot. We are a world-class example of the power and possibility of academic research in this country. But I'm not going to pretend that the system is perfect. We face a myriad of challenges, and the Jacobs School strives to improve and fix what we can. But in the meantime, let's not forget the big WHY that's behind it all. Through engineering and computer science research, we have many opportunities to build exciting and satisfying careers while also creating innovative solutions to a daunting list of complex challenges facing humanity.
Sincerely,
Al
Albert P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering